Chuck vs Jen Burton: Spy Girl
by P.J. Murphy
Summary: Sarah Walker is a CIA agent with the perfect cover: as a spy on a popular TV show. When her former co-star and lover steals vital government information, her team heads to Burbank to locate it. What follows changes everyone's lives forever.
1. Meet the Team

After a two-year hiatus, I decided to try one of the ideas I previously had for a story. It's been a long road, and unfortunately I've spent most of 2015 in the hospital getting a few things fixed with my heart. I thought about restarting my writing a few times since it'll still be a while before I can go back to work (not that I could find gainful employment before this). But my mind started to fill in a few of the blanks about this story, so I thought I would give it a try.

Although this is obviously AU, it takes many elements from the first few seasons of Chuck, which are the property of NBC and I'm not making a dime off of this. This chapter sets up the team that will soon be visiting Chuck. I also borrowed some elements from my Jimmy Slade AU, mostly for comedic value and to make certain subplots work. So Jimmy Slade will definitely be here, and if you're nice, maybe I'll let Alex Forrest try to hook up into his network.

Above all else, please leave reviews. That way I know people are actually reading this. Thanks!

* * *

 _ **Unknown Location  
**_ _ **September 21, 2015  
**_ _ **8:00 PM**_

Two figures ran along the side of the building, neither of whom were nervous or fearful. They had been partners for two years. The lithe blonde preferred it that way; her partner was unsurpassed in dealing with these situations. If only that was true of life in general.

The man unslung his backpack, and the woman hid behind him out of sight of surveillance cameras. Given her partner was three inches taller and one hundred pounds of solid muscle heavier than her, he made a great imitation of a brick wall as far as she was concerned.

Aiming at the top of the building, the man fired his piton gun. As the woman clipped a motorized winch to her belt, the man fired a second piton as well and attached the rope trailing it to the winch on his belt. The two activated the motors and were taken to the top of the ten-story building. They pulled themselves over the roof and quickly went to a skylight in the middle. The man fired two pitons on either side of the skylight while the woman took a small laser device out of her flak jacket and carefully traced a hole in the skylight large enough for the man to get through.

"You do realize these winches can only hold 250 pounds, right?" she said to the man. "You are really pushing your luck."

"Fine. Next time I'll eat a salad for lunch," he retorted with a significant amount of aggravation. "Do you know how to disarm a Soviet-era SS-18 nuclear warhead some idiot bought on the streets of St. Petersburg for two hundred thousand dollars?"

The woman made a face at him as she took a larger winch and attached it to the man's back. "You just enjoy being both the brains and the brawn here."

The man rolled his eyes as he pulled out a small toolkit. "No respect from the boss."

"Are you two done yet? It's like watching a bad reality TV show," said an older gentleman into their earpieces, who had to shout over the noise coming from the helicopter blades.

"Isn't bad reality TV a redundancy?" the man quipped as he did a handstand over the skylight.

The woman exhaled in annoyance as the man nodded that he was ready. She took up the slack in the ropes and activated the winch. The man pulled his arms in. He slid through the hole she cut in the glass and descended steadily towards the warhead, which was hanging by a chain fifty feet above the concrete warehouse floor.

"Hold there. That's good," the man said, and the woman immediately stopped the winch. He removed the outer casing. "OK, apparently they didn't buy this off the rack. There are some modifications."

"Like what?" the woman asked.

"They repacked the nuclear material to widen the blast area. Less people might be killed by the bomb but they must have known that already. The bad news is this thing could send out an EMP that would kill every electronic device for forty miles."

"Can you disarm it?"

"Disarm a jerry-rigged Soviet-era nuclear warhead while hanging upside-down and using a toolkit people would normally use on a PC? Yeah, I do it all the time."

"Somebody's cranky tonight," a red-headed woman in the helicopter said over their earpieces. "I keep offering him some stress relief but he's not interested."

"I don't blame him," the man in the helicopter replied. "You have the only bedroom that operates like a delicatessen. Take a number and wait until it's called."

"Could we please focus on the mission?" the blonde said to shut everyone up. "If we don't disarm this device, we'll end up dead."

"Why do you care?" the man hanging upside-down muttered. "You could have nuclear orange hair and still be fashionable."

The man accessed the circuit boards. A clock on it showed three minutes until detonation.

"Why do these things always have a clock on them?" he said to himself as he readied some wire cutters.

"You have company," the woman flying the helicopter said, the flirtatious lilt in her voice completely gone.

"How many?" the woman on the roof asked.

"A dozen coming up the south stairwell. We can be there in sixty seconds."

The woman saw the twelve head her way. "We may not be here in sixty seconds!"

The two agents leading the charge opened fire on the woman with automatic weapons. She ducked behind a roof vent, the shots missing her by mere inches. As she returned fire, one enemy shot at the stakes holding the man's ropes. He fell further down the shaft, away from the warhead, and he had to pull himself up to hang on to the remaining rope.

"Would you mind not dropping me when I'm trying to disarm the nuclear warhead?" the man called out. "Thanks!"

The two thugs with the automatic weapons slowed their approach. They went to either side of the vent, ready to shoot the woman.

They stepped to the other side but found nobody.

Suddenly, someone dropped down between them, grabbed their automatic weapons, and pushed in the triggers. The two men ended up shooting each other.

The woman then reactivated her winch, which propelled her back to the top of the roof vent, and jumped down to the other side. The remaining hoodlums were taken by surprise. She spun and took out the closest one with a back kick, then pushed off of the ground to send her boot into the throat of another enemy. Two others tried to grab her, but she somersaulted between them before they could get their hands on her. She then kicked her legs out to trip them. She flipped back in the air and landed a boot at the head of each. Four other agents managed to grab her and hold her in place.

"Need a little help?" the woman in the helicopter asked.

Everybody looked up to see the helicopter dive towards the roof. The woman took the opportunity to break away from the enemy agents holding her to find some cover. The man in the helicopter opened fire with his M134 minigun, screaming like a cowboy who just rode the toughest bull in the world long past eight seconds. Most of the agents took hits and fell. One or two decided not to test their luck and ran for their lives.

The woman ran for the ropes holding her partner up. She grabbed the one that was cut and pulled as hard as she could. There was less than twenty seconds before the warhead would detonate. The man hanging upside-down quickly got out his kit and exposed the correct wires. He cut the wires as the man who saved them with his M134 rappelled down to join the blonde woman.

"It's done! Pull me up quick!" the man shouted from inside the warehouse. The two pulled him through the skylight, and all three of them ran for the edge of the roof. The warhead exploded but did not go to nuclear yield. The three breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards where the helicopter was.

"Another day, another earth-saving mission," the blonde's partner said.

"Maybe they'll be nice and let us have a day off tomorrow," the woman replied.

"There's as much chance of that as your BFF up there joining a convent."

The blonde rolled her eyes as the three clipped on the ropes hanging from the helicopter. "Now I know why James Bond works alone." The trio was pulled up to the departing helicopter.

"And…CUT!"

The buzzer sounded to end the scene, and the extras and crew applauded the group of four. The three people going into the helicopter were lowered back to the ground by their safety harnesses. They then sent the helicopter to the landing pad at the back of the studio while Langston Graham, the director, shook hands with his assistant directors and the camera operators.

The man who was upside-down in the warehouse winced in pain. "Are you OK, Jimmy?" the blonde woman asked.

"Yeah, I'll be OK," Jimmy replied despite having a pronounced limp. " 'Ol Lance McCall comes through again for…" he changed to his voice actor persona, "…Jen Burton: Spy Girl!"

He tried to stand straight up, only to growl in pain from his injury. "Sarah, did the mikes pick up my growling down there? I think the rig slipped and that's what got my ankle."

Sarah put Jimmy's arm around her to support him while he walked. "I didn't even hear it and I was close to you the whole time." She borrowed a walkie-talkie from one of the assistants. "Langston, do we have to shoot that again? Could they hear Jimmy growling?"

"No, we're good. Great work with the scene," he replied.

Sarah Walker breathed a sigh of relief. This was one of the toughest stunts the show ever attempted, and doing it more than once would have been risky and expensive. Of course Jimmy Slade, being the resident lunatic of the group, didn't have to be convinced to attempt it. If anything, they had to force him to wear a safety harness.

"By the way, did you go to the William Shatner School of Method Acting?" Jimmy asked the man who was with them. "That was a weird sound you made as you were shooting."

"That's how my character would have reacted," John Casey replied with a bit of offense.

"Yeah, but you're supposed to shoot the gun, not hump it. I think you owe it dinner and some jewelry."

Casey let out a low growl before Sarah interrupted. "It was fine, Case. You got that right."

The trio took the elevator down to the main floor. The redhead who flew the helicopter Casey was in was waiting for them.

"Who's up for celebrating?" Carina Miller asked them.

"No can do," Casey replied. "They're sending me ahead to gather intel on the La Ciudad situation."

Carina frowned. "Jimmy?"

Jimmy looked down at his injured ankle. "I better go take care of this."

"Are you sure you don't need to see a doctor?" Sarah asked with some concern.

"Nah, it'll be fine. Just rub some dirt on it. That's what they always used to say. Scraped your knee? Just rub some dirt on it. Broken neck? Just rub some dirt on it. Wife walked out on you? Just rub some dirt on it."

Sarah gave a little laugh. "Yeah, I'm a bit wiped myself. I could use some alone time."

Carina gave them a Bronx cheer. "You three are seriously no fun. We have the best jobs anyone could have!"

"Apart from the constant danger and possibility of death at any time," Jimmy replied.

"Two years and you still need to grow a pair."

"Yeah, he was real chicken shit when he pulled you out of that prison before that separatist group got their grimy mitts on you," Casey replied, surprising Jimmy in the process. He wasn't used to Casey defending him. Either that or Carina ranked lower on his totem pole than he did.

"See you later," Sarah said to close the conversation. "Graham will call us in the morning, I'm sure."

Carina took off to have fun while Casey went to his trailer to prepare for his trip to the Middle East to hopefully intercept La Ciudad. Jimmy went back to his hotel to ice his ankle while Sarah went back to hers to have a quiet night.

~/^\~

Sarah walked into her hotel room and was instantly grateful for her new assistant. "Thank you, Hannah!" she shouted to the room, even though Hannah was long gone by now. She prepared for Sarah's arrival with a room service tray containing a bottle of wine and a pair of chocolate croissants. Sarah quickly opened the wine and poured herself a glass. She left the bottle on the table and carried the tray to the bath.

As she stepped into the bath, the hot water and luxuriating bubbles instantly relaxing her, she couldn't help but think how crazy her life had become. Langston Graham, who was her boss for missions and directed the occasional episode of the show to maintain his cover, was the one to find her years ago. He had arrested her father to keep him protected from some very dangerous criminals from whom he swindled money. Rather than arrest her to keep her protected, Graham gave her an opportunity to put her considerable skills to good use. Four years of college and CIA training later, she was out in the field, looking like she did now instead of her meek, mousy appearance in high school.

To say nothing about the biggest chip on her shoulder any new spy could have.

When she first started, Sarah had a cold, calculating demeanor. Stealing from innocents was no problem. She knew over 200 ways to kill and put them to good use, and she bedded enough marks to make Wilt Chamberlain take notice. Spies had been known to get that way after many years on the job, but she was going to burn out long before that. They had partnered her up with several highly-rated agents to slow down that seemingly inevitable path to self-destruction, but there was only one who made any sort of impact with her: Bryce Larkin.

Given that Sarah eventually fell in love with him, it was quite an impact.

They worked together for several years, often posing as a married couple to reduce suspicions from enemy organizations. They were highly compatible in the field and even more compatible in the bedroom. Sarah had even given thought to giving up the spy life and running away with Bryce.

Then Langston Graham decided to promote both of them to the top level.

In the late 1980s, a little-known TV show premiered in syndication about a spy going on missions each week, saving the world with grace and sophistication. _Rick Gallow: Spy Man_ lasted for five seasons, at which time they stopped production without explanation. Graham explained to Sarah and Bryce that one of the agencies top spies at the time used that as a cover to account for him being in so many exotic locales. Nobody could believe that Roan Montgomery, now a legend in the CIA, was the same person who was on that show. Graham wanted to revive the show cover with Sarah as the lead and Bryce as her partner. Within six months, _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_ hit the airwaves. Unlike the prior show, which saw limited success only in the States, _Spy Girl_ was popular all over the world and had been the biggest TV show for three years. Although, as John Casey was quick to point out, so was _Baywatch_.

The idea worked even better than it did when Roan was the lead. The skimpy outfits Sarah wore and the number of times Bryce went shirtless as Jen's partner, Jack Coulton, may have had something to do with the high ratings in the early days. But a few changes had to be made. After the first season, people complained Jen Burton did too many things that made her look evil or slutty, despite the fact she did far less than what James Bond did in a single film.

To combat this double standard, they brought in some help. Sarah's old friend through training, Carina Miller, originally started out as Sarah's assistant, both on the show and on missions. The producers of the show tweaked the formula so Carina's character, Jill Garrett, would take more of the seduction duties, leaving Jen Burton to act more like the leader of the group. It was an icy relationship when they reunited on the set, as Carina had betrayed Sarah when Sarah tried to help her retrieve the Nadan-I-Noor diamond during Carina's days with the DEA. But after a long talk, Sarah forgave her old friend, and Carina was quite interested in being a part of the Hollywood experience. And certainly she had no problem getting to know the cast and crew, especially the cute ones. There were even rumors she had a past relationship with John Casey, which Casey vehemently denied and Carina was only too happy to describe in _Penthouse Forum-_ like detail.

As Sarah lay back in the tub, she shook her head and laughed. She still couldn't believe John Casey would sign up for something like this. But he had been with the NSA for more than 20 years as a cleaner. He got rid of problems for a living, such as nuclear arsenals or vile despots ruling in the Middle East. The fact that he enjoyed it so much started to concern both Graham and General Diane Beckman, who was the head of the Director of National Intelligence. Even Sarah had butted heads with Casey one time when a Chinese agent came to the U.S. to rescue her brother. They started Casey as a cameraman on Roan's show just to keep him occupied between missions. But like most other things in life, Casey excelled at his job and was made Director of Photography on Sarah's show. To help the writers out of logistical screw-ups in the plot, such as how Jen Burton and Lance McCall were going to survive this past episode against a dozen agents, they gave Casey a recurring role on the show as Duke Forrester, an ex-Green Beret who applied the proper amount of ammunition whenever the show needed it. Although he had a very acerbic nature, as Carina and Jimmy could attest to, he had a better relationship with Sarah. The two seemed to understand each other and respected the roles they played in the field and in each episode of the show.

Casey was also the one Sarah leaned on the most when Bryce abandoned her.

Two years ago, Bryce disappeared on a mission in Venezuela. Given the strained relationship the U.S. had at the time with Venezuela, rumors ranged from Bryce being captured, executed, or even betraying his homeland. Sarah couldn't accept any of those, but the fact remained Bryce was gone and hadn't been seen since. She took it personally; she thought she had done something to drive him away. That summer in 2013 was a difficult one for her. To keep her sanity, she buried herself in her work. Unfortunately, that meant that cold, calculating rookie threatened to return. Graham knew he had to put a stop to that, and he knew Jen Burton needed a new partner.

An agent Sarah had never heard of was put into the show. Jimmy Slade would play the role of Lance McCall, her new partner. Certainly he looked the part. Apart from the black hair and blue eyes, though, he was the complete opposite of Bryce. He was more classically handsome, as if he stepped out of a 1940s movie. He was much larger than Bryce, and not once did he ever step on Sarah's lines. Where Bryce was brash and cocky, Jimmy was quiet and humble. In actual missions, he deferred to Sarah's judgement 90% of the time. But he had a knack for improvising a way out of trouble when it seemed failure, or even death, was certain. There was little doubt this was an excellent agent they paired her with, albeit a little crazy.

She thought he was a good person. So much so, she asked him out on a date. But in the rush to clear her mind of Bryce Larkin, Sarah swung too far in the other direction.

She went on five dates with Jimmy. All of them were quality dates, including a couple of dinners, a movie, and even going to a few nightclubs. But he wouldn't make a move on her. A hug and a kiss on the cheek after the fourth date was the most she got. She was getting desperate. She wanted to sleep with him long before the required minimum five dates. She knew she had to make the first move and tried to following a date where they had a romantic walk along the beach. Any other guy would have been floored by the kiss she gave Jimmy that night. But all it did for him was give him an expression of pure terror.

"OK, I give up," Sarah said to him after they broke from the kiss. "Are you not attracted to me? Don't you want to go back to my apartment and have sex? I mean, seriously! You are straight, right?"

"I…um…I...," Jimmy stammered, although he did nod his head to the question about his sexual orientation.

"Then what is it?" Sarah asked, which sounded suspiciously like a demand.

"It's…I…" Jimmy turned and ran away. Sarah wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a few tears in his eyes before he took off on her.

She got in her car and got on the phone to Langston Graham. There was no way she could work with Jimmy if he was that afraid of her.

"Who is this guy?" she asked Graham. "I never heard of him before you brought him to the set. Jimmy has absolutely no fear when it comes to missions, but I kiss him and he runs away? What the hell is going on?"

She could hear Graham exhale a long sigh. "You remember how we brought you into the fold to protect you when you were eighteen? We did the same for him, only he was 37 at the time and it was a CIA experiment gone horribly wrong."

"I don't understand. What experiment?"

"The details of the experiment are classified, but suffice it to say there are many enemy organizations who would like to capture Jimmy Slade and use him for their benefit. He was locked up for many years to keep him from being captured, which was actually better than the traumatic childhood he was put through. Ten times as bad as yours."

Graham paused for a moment. "Wait, did you say you kissed him?"

"Um…yes," Sarah said, not believing kissing a co-worker could get her in trouble.

Graham let out a little chuckle. "I can hazard a guess why he ran away. You were probably the first person to kiss him. Ever. It never occurred to you that Jen and Lance don't kiss or make love on the show like Jen and Jack did?"

Sarah shook her head and smiled. "I just thought it was the writers making sure Jen never let herself fall for another guy again."

"Well, maybe it's good you found out because now you can talk to him. The writers keep wanting to have romance bloom between Jen and Lance. They think it'll boost the ratings. That, or we'll jump the shark."

Sarah smiled in that bathtub while sampling the second croissant. She did talk to Jimmy and they became close friends. She started going to him for advice; at least the advice she couldn't count on from Carina. And if it was possible, their relationship made him a better actor on the show and a better spy during missions. But she made sure she got a proper kiss from him, since they would have to start kissing on the show with the new plotlines. Thankfully, he was good at it. At the 2014 Comic Con, there were plenty of people who wanted Bryce back. After another season of the show with Lance McCall instead of Jack Coulton, the votes switched to keeping Jimmy Slade.

Sarah was so relaxed from the bath, she barely heard her iPhone ringing. She got of the tub and wrapped a towel around herself as she went to answer it.

"Hello?"

"I need the four of you to report at 0800 tomorrow."

Sarah knew that voice well. Langston Graham was in business mode, which meant something important must have happened.

"What's going on?"

"Bryce Larkin is back from the dead and just attacked a CIA facility."

Sarah looked at her phone in shock.


	2. Feeling a Little Pasty

_Hello. This is what I get for trying to say something positive about myself. I was talking about how I was much healthier only to wind up back in the hospital again. Thankfully, it was a much shorter stay, and I swear I'm not trying to score sympathy points to get more reviews. Unless it's working. :-D_

 _Anyway, here is the newest chapter. I borrow a lot of lines from the show, which again are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions, and I'm still not making a dime off of this. But I do promise to get the next chapter within a week. Hospital stays notwithstanding, of course._

 _Enjoy and please give reviews!_

* * *

 _ **Echo Park, Los Angeles  
**_ _ **September 21, 2015  
**_ _ **8:00 PM PDT**_

"Birthday boy, come on. We're going to be social. You are funny, you are smart, you are handsome…"

"Oh, there's Captain Awesome."

"Please don't call him that."

"OK, I have identified some candidates for Chuck and they're _awesome_."

Most people would be thrilled to have a big party to celebrate their birthday. Chuck Bartowski was not one of those people. Particularly since his sister, Ellie and her boyfriend, Devon, used it as an excuse to set him up with someone. The majority of whom were doctors the two Westside Medical Center residents knew. And the one woman thinking his Nerd Herd uniform was a costume did not give him much in the way of optimism.

"You work for the Nerd Herd? That is so cute! What do you really want to do?"

What is that gift women have to insult you but make it sound like a compliment? Chuck couldn't figure it out. Of course, there hadn't been anyone since Jill, and that ended as badly as it could have.

"Working on my five-year plan. I just have to choose a font."

As if that wasn't bad enough, one of the women had to grill him about Stanford, the college he was expelled from several years ago. Naturally, she had heard of his ex-roommate and the man responsible for getting him kicked out: Bryce Larkin.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since he was on that TV show."

 _ **Toronto, ON  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **8:00 AM EDT**_

Sarah walked into the studio office of Langston Graham. It was different than any other office in the building, given it was soundproof, had an electronic system that swept for listening devices on a constant basis, and had a computer tied in with the FBI, CIA, and NSA. And if he wanted, he could download information directly from servers at British Intelligence, the French DGSE, Russian FSB, and the Mossad.

Sarah was the last to arrive, although she was still there two minutes before the hour. The rest of her team was exactly the way they always were in the morning. Carina had on the same clothes she wore last night, Casey kept rubbing his face as if he thought he needed a shave, and Jimmy was slumped over with an extra-large coffee from Tim Horton's. It was a good substitute for the coffee he'd normally have from Dunkin' Donuts had they been in the States. But even the government liked to save money on occasion, so episodes that didn't need to be shot in a specific location were done in a studio near Toronto. And selling the TV rights all over the world meant the team's missions were self-funded and therefore never audited by the GAO.

"This is a situation that has to be dealt with quickly and carefully," Graham began. "Last night, Bryce Larkin stole a large set of data from the computer systems at a specialized CIA facility in D.C. They uploaded the video footage from the surveillance cameras around the building."

Graham pressed a button on a control panel underneath his desk, and the image on his monitor was displayed on a projector screen for everyone to see. At first, all anybody saw was a large room with a computer sitting on top of a table in the middle. The room was all white, completely bereft of character. Suddenly, Bryce dropped down into the shot, his attire disheveled and bloody. He pulled himself up, slid in front of the computer, and put some sort of device into the computer's drive. He put on a pair of sunglasses and hit a button on the device. At that moment, the video changed to static.

"What happened?" Casey asked.

"A power surge knocked out the surveillance cameras in the room, presumably because of Bryce activating the computer and downloading its contents into that device," Graham said. "The next video we have comes seventy seconds later from the hallway just outside of the room."

The video continued in the hallway as Graham indicated, where the team witnessed the doors to the room exploding outward, knocking two guards down, and Bryce flying out two feet ahead of the blast. He pushed himself up a wall to kick at a guard running at him and did the same with the guard after that. He slid under a table, kicking the chair on the other side of it into a third guard. He tried to go up the stairs but a guard blocked his path. He swung off the railing to nail that guard with a scissor kick before pulling himself up and crashing through a window above the next doorway.

The shot changed to a stairwell where Bryce appeared to be looking for something on the device he carried. He knocked another guard down the stairwell before making it to the roof. He then jumped across the roofs, going from building to building, eventually losing the guards who couldn't keep up with his acrobatics.

He then took a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. The video turned to static.

"That's all we have," Graham said to the team. "He knocked out the exterior surveillance cameras. We have no idea if he sent the information or where he went."

"Wait," Jimmy replied. He walked up to Graham's computer. "May I?"

Graham moved away from his computer. "What are you thinking?"

Jimmy started typing away at the computer. "If I saw that video correctly, that side of the building is across the street from First Liberty Bank. Let me see if I can get access to their surveillance cameras. It would be a substantial distance, but maybe we'll see something."

Casey and Carina glanced over at Sarah. Her face hadn't changed expression, but both of them could see her gripping the chair tightly. It was the sort of thing the average person wouldn't notice, but they knew their boss as well as she knew them.

"Got it," Jimmy said after another minute. "Here we go."

The video started playing again. From a distance, Bryce appeared to be looking at his device. Suddenly, his entire body snapped back and he fell to the ground as if he had been shot. The man who walked up to him with his gun pointed seemed to confirm that. The man picked up the electronic device Bryce was carrying, studied it for a moment, and threw it on the ground in anger. He fired two more shots at the prone Bryce. A large SUV pulled up and two men got out of it. They picked up Bryce's body and slid it into the back of the SUV. The man who shot Bryce got into the passenger side of the SUV and the other two men got in the back seat. The SUV sped off into the night.

Jimmy hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I didn't know…"

Sarah put her hand up. "It's not your fault," she said softly, trying to rein in her grief. Casey and Carina looked down at the ground. They knew how much Sarah had been in love with Bryce, and despite Bryce walking out on her, they knew he held a special place in her heart, even if Bryce didn't share the same sentiment. Jimmy shifted nervously back and forth on his feet. He had never met Bryce, of course, but he never liked to see Sarah in pain like this, especially when there was nothing he could do about it.

"What data did Bryce steal?" Casey asked quietly to refocus the group.

 _ **Echo Park, Los Angeles  
**_ _ **September 21, 2015  
**_ _ **11:45 PM PDT**_

"Wow. And blast-from-the-past wow. Bryce remembered your birthday, dude."

Chuck looked at Morgan in confusion. He then looked towards his computer to see the email flag Morgan spotted. Chuck opened the email and recognized the line from the old Zork text-based fantasy game. He tried to remember what weapon was the correct one to take from his hero satchel.

"You know, what? You're still really cool."

"And it's time for you to go home."

Chuck sent Morgan on his way because he knew his bearded compadre would never voluntarily leave his room, particularly if they were on the computer or playing videogames. He then typed in the correct response to the terrible troll.

 _Attack troll with nasty knife._

A series of images started to appear on the screen, flickering by at an increasing pace. Chuck stood there, unable to turn away. He saw hundreds, if not thousands of images. When the images ceased seven hours later, Chuck fell unconscious onto the floor.

 _ **Toronto, ON  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **8:20 AM EDT**_

Graham leaned forward in his chair and steepled his fingers as Jimmy returned to his seat. "The computer Bryce stole the data from…did everything. We had been working on this system for over thirty years. The CIA and NSA worked together to collect all of their data in one place. The computer would mine for patterns in the data and make connections we couldn't find. The data was encoded into images and put on this computer. It was developed and shelved several times after a few disastrous attempts at making it work. After 9/11, we put on the full-court press to make it viable."

Sarah glanced at her partners, the reality of Bryce's death having passed for the moment. Casey and Carina were impassive and listening intently to Graham, but Jimmy looked a bit uncomfortable in his seat, gripping the arms of the chair like they were the only things preventing him from falling to his death. Graham had mentioned to Sarah two years ago that Jimmy was in a CIA experiment gone wrong. Could this be that experiment? She would have to talk to him.

"Bryce must have been able to send the data to someone before he was killed," Carina said. "The man who took his electronic device threw it away like garbage."

Graham's phone rang. "This might be the answer." He picked up the phone and listened for a few seconds before ending it with a "very well." He looked at the team again. "The NSA has a lead on where that data went. Pack your bags. You're heading to Burbank."

"Sir?" Jimmy said as everyone else started to rise from their chairs. "Request permission to recuse myself from this operation."

Sarah, Casey, and Carina looked at him in surprise. They never heard Jimmy talk this quietly before, and he wasn't one to bellow from the treetops to begin with.

Graham was more shocked than surprised. "Absolutely not. You're the best person to be on this mission. I suggest you do your job with all of the professionalism and dedication I expect out of you."

Sarah watched Jimmy nod and shuffle out of the office with his head down. Based on Graham's severe retort to Jimmy's request, Sarah was now convinced there was a link between the data Bryce stole and what happened to Jimmy many years ago. She learned to accept not being given every piece of pertinent information from the CIA, but she wouldn't tolerate it from her partners.

She walked out of the office and called Hannah to collect her things from the hotel and have them sent to the studio.

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **10:15 AM PDT**_

"Do me a favor and stay off the 5 because cops are in a phased deployment."

"O.K. Thanks for the tip, Ponch."

As if the email from Bryce wasn't weird enough, Morgan had to awaken Chuck, who was still sleeping on the floor when he arrived. Chuck wasn't sure how he knew of the big police presence on Interstate 5, and he later guessed that General Stanfield was already in town despite the news saying he wasn't. Chuck wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't have much time to worry about it. The Nerd Herd expected to be very busy today as a virus named after Irene Demova, the Serbian porn star, was making its way through the computers of every lonely guy in town. He expected Anna, Jeff, Lester, and he to get a lot of work today. Of course, knowing the working practices of Jeff and Lester…or lack thereof…he figured to be in for a long day.

Given he didn't notice the man in the leather coat keeping an eye on him, his day hadn't even begun.

 _ **Gulfstream G550 over Kansas  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **10:00 AM CDT**_

The NSA worked to get a definitive location for the destination of Bryce's data breach. Until that information was ascertained, there wasn't much to do on the flight. Casey napped in his traditional seat in the second row while Carina used the spacious…for a G550 anyway…restroom to change clothes and freshen up. Sarah looked back from her seat across from Casey to see Jimmy in the last row looking out the window.

She walked back and sat in the seat next to him. "Everything OK?" she asked.

"Fine," he lied, and not even convincingly.

"No, don't do that. I can accept the higher-ups keeping things from me but not someone I trust with my life. What is going on? You don't want to be on this mission and Graham says you're the best person for it?"

"I really can't talk about it," Jimmy timidly replied.

Sarah gave Jimmy one of her glares. She knew how to get information from just about anybody, but a stern glare was all she needed to get it from him. And this was a person who missed breaking Casey's record of being tortured without divulging information by only two minutes.

Jimmy hung his head. Sarah backed off a bit since it was clear this was hurting him. "Does it have to do with what happened to you all those years ago?"

Jimmy reached down to grab his briefcase from under his seat. He opened it up and pulled out a folder buried deep inside and handed it to Sarah. She opened it and looked at the first item in it in total shock.

"That's you?" she said, holding up a picture of a much younger Jimmy Slade. Her eyes darted back and forth between the picture and the man sitting next to her. The younger Jimmy Slade had unkempt gray hair, torn clothing, and looked to be about 400 pounds.

"Almost 25 years ago," Jimmy said softly.

"Where was this taken?"

"I was a student at the University of Illinois. They had an experiment where they claimed they were trying to determine the optimal methods for educating students in various subjects. But it was actually a CIA experiment. The Intersect project, although the name they used at the time was Project Goodwin.

"I passed all of the initial testing, so it was time for the second phase. They put me in a room and started to show me images on a movie projector screen. I don't know how many I actually saw, but I couldn't turn away, move any part of my body, nothing. I passed out. I guess I was unconscious for almost two days, and when I woke up, it felt like my mind was out of my control."

Jimmy's breathing became labored and Sarah took his hand to calm him. "I…I ran for my life, hitting and assaulting anybody who got in my way. I made it across campus to the football game that was going on. But they cornered me there. They said they could fix me, but I was too far gone to believe them. I leapt from the top of Memorial Stadium and landed on an RV. They reported back that I had committed suicide, but I only ended up with a broken arm, leg, and a concussion."

Sarah was quiet. If all of this happened to Jimmy from just the experiment, she shuddered at what happened to him before that, given Graham said Jimmy's childhood was ten times worse than hers. And she did not think she had a pleasant childhood by any stretch.

"Then they found you and locked you up?" she asked.

Jimmy shook his head and gave a little laugh. "Four years later. Shows you the type of luck I used to have. I got pulled over by some asshole suburban cop on a power trip who wrote me up for doing 39 in a 35 MPH zone, and that was all the CIA needed. They tossed me in a cell and threw away the key."

"My God."

"I thought I had hit the bottom of the barrel after I left the U of I. I had nothing. And then even that got taken away. I was…" Jimmy began to struggle with his words. "…I was devastated, I couldn't handle it. I tried to commit suicide in that holding facility at least four times. And twice attempts were made on my life. I think a few organizations bribed some guards at the facility to either capture me or arrange a little 'accident'. Graham pulled me out of that facility to a safehouse. But someone on the inside found me and killed the husband-and-wife couple he assigned to guard me. I blamed myself for them being killed and tried to end my life a fifth time. And had it not been for a misfired gun, I would have succeeded."

Sarah was regretting pressing Jimmy for information. She suspected what happened to him was bad, but she didn't know it was this bad.

"Do you still have this thing in your head?" Sarah asked.

Jimmy shook his head. "No. They were finally able to get it out. Of course, this was years later. At the time of the experiment, nobody owned a PC or even heard of the Internet. I'm sure the technology is better now after almost 25 years. We just have to locate the person who got Bryce's email. I'm sure they wouldn't have been able to open the file."

"But how did you go from being an imprisoned asset to a top-tier agent? More importantly, why would you ever help the people that ruined your life?"

"They changed my safehouse and assigned a new team of agents to protect me. But they were attacked the same as the first couple. Only this time, I took matters into my own hands. The three of us managed to hold off a group of twenty enemy agents long enough for reinforcements to arrive. That got Graham's attention, so he decided to send me on a mission to Las Vegas to recover a memory card containing the account numbers of money laundered from a slew of terrorist organizations. Not only did we get the card, I ended up saving the entire team by base jumping off the Stratosphere Tower into the warehouse where they were being held and took out the Russian mobsters who had planned to kill them."

"And that was with no training whatsoever? That's amazing."

"No, what was amazing was that parachute was able to carry my fat ass."

Sarah gave a gentle growl and smacked Jimmy upside the head. That was her standard response whenever Jimmy made a disparaging remark about himself. But she knew she could get away with that. Casey tried it once and he ended up with a black eye.

"So Graham decided you were better off protecting others rather than being protected?"

Jimmy nodded. "He put me through fast-track training, and I finished the program two months ahead of schedule. He put me on the more hardcore jobs, the ones that required fighting skills, expertise in computers, daring rescues, that kind of thing."

Sarah put the pieces together and a big smile drew across her face. "But you never had to…"

Jimmy shook his head. "Roan was supposed to come out and give me a few lessons on how to seduce, but they couldn't sober him up enough to make the flight."

Sarah laughed at that, remembering Roan paid quite a bit of attention to her during training. But then, so did every male agent trainee…and even some of the female ones.

"So Graham was right. Your first kiss was with me on the beach."

Jimmy looked down at the ground and nodded. "Not exactly a high point in my life, my first kiss not happening until I was 42."

"Stop it," Sarah admonished him. "That's not a character flaw. Given what you've gone through, it was just bad luck. Although I will say, had I known all of this two years ago, there would have been no way in hell I would have let you leave that beach."

Jimmy smiled. "The ol' 'wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then' routine, huh."

"OK, half of it would have been trying to spend the night with a very sweet and handsome person. But I was having a lot of trouble when Bryce left and you are his polar opposite. I just…"

She stopped mid-sentence. "Sarah?" Jimmy asked gently.

He could see Sarah's eyes welling up. He lifted the armrest between the seats and wrapped his arms around her. Sarah cried quietly, burying her face in Jimmy's shoulder so no one else would see her. It was one of the many traits she liked about Jimmy: he was a walking teddy bear. There was no way in hell either Casey or Carina would let her do this.

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **2:00 PM PDT**_

Sarah entered the store and surveyed the scene, checking to be sure her Smith & Wesson 5906 pistol was out of sight behind her back but easily accessible. After getting herself together on the flight, the team discussed the best way to approach the man to whom Bryce sent the email. Casey would monitor things in the surveillance van provided by the NSA's Los Angeles branch. While Sarah went into the store to meet this person, Jimmy and Carina would break into his apartment to take the file off of his computer.

It wasn't hard to spot Chuck Bartowski. He was the only person in the whole store who looked like he was trying to work. She spotted him at the Nerd Herd desk talking with a shorter, bearded man. If the bio workup on Bartowski was correct, that was his best friend, Morgan.

"Stop the presses!" Morgan exclaimed.

Chuck didn't even look up from the file folder he was working on or take the phone away from his ear. "What, did Vicky Vale walk in?" He started singing in a silly voice. "Vicky Vale, Vick-a-Vicky Vale! Vickity, Vickity, Vicky Vale…"

"Dude, even better than that!"

Chuck still didn't look up. "Who's better than Vicky Vale?"

"Me, I hope," Sarah said, prompting Chuck to drop the phone and folder instantly.

"Uh, hi!" Chuck said, completely flabbergasted by seeing the star of one of his favorite shows in the Buy More. "That…that was from Batman."

"Because that makes it better?" Sarah asked, to which Chuck nervously laughed. Sarah was definitely feeling a lot of confusion right now. If Chuck was a member of some enemy group, he deserved an Oscar for his performance of an innocent tech.

"I'm Morgan, and this is Chuck," Morgan said.

"Wow, I didn't think people still named their kids Chuck…or Morgan, for that matter," Sarah replied.

"Well, my parents were sadists," Chuck said. "And carnival freaks found Morgan in a dumpster."

"But they raised me as one of their own," Morgan added.

"Look, I'm sorry. You probably get tired of hearing this, but I'm a big fan of the show," Chuck said, barely able to hold Sarah's gaze. "It is so much fun to watch the group of you doing all of that action and cracking those one-liners."

"Nothing to be sorry for. I love hearing that from the fans," Sarah replied. "I'd really worry the day doing the show stopped being fun."

Unlike Chuck's sheepish expression, Morgan looked like he just won the lottery. "Sarah, I just gotta ask. I spent so much time on IMDb about the whole Bryce Larkin/Jimmy Slade debate, so I have to ask an expert. Who is better in your opinion?"

"Both of them have their good qualities. I've had a great time working with both of them," she replied, always giving her standard answer to one of the most popular questions she gets about the show.

"How can I help you?" Chuck asked.

"I'm here about this," she said, laying down the cell phone Casey disabled for her.

"Ah, yes. The IntelliCell. Yes, absolutely. This model has a little screw that pops loose right in the back here. Just give it a couple of quick turns and…good as new."

Sarah gave him a smile, mostly for cover purposes, but there was something about this guy.

"Wow, you geeks are good."

"Nerds…we're more like nerds. You know, the Nerd Herd."

"Sarah, we have a problem."

Sarah heard Jimmy's voice through her earpiece. She gave a tug to her right earlobe, which was the signal for Casey to ring the phone. Casey typed the appropriate command into the computer, and Sarah's phone began to ring.

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" she said to Chuck and Morgan. "I turn the phone back on and it's like everyone was waiting to call me."

"No, not at all," Chuck replied. As much as he wanted to continue talking to Sarah, a desperate father ran up to the Nerd Herd desk with a daughter dressed in a tutu.

Sarah put the phone to her ear. "What's up?"

 _ **Echo Park, Los Angeles  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **2:20 PM PDT**_

Jimmy and Carina looked around the apartment in total disbelief. None of this was making sense.

"I've got some bad news and some really bad news," Jimmy said. "The bad news is, I couldn't find the file on either of the computers in the apartment. Not on the drives, not in emails, nowhere. The really bad news is someone may have beaten us to it. The apartment's been ransacked."

Sarah kept her look impassive but she could feel her blood boiling. "That doesn't make any sense. If Chuck knew Bryce sent him something, why would he vandalize his own apartment?"

"We've been duped before, Walker," Casey said. "He could be playing us to keep the heat off of himself."

"No, there's something else going on," Carina said. "Sarah, you're talking to the guy. What do you think?"

Sarah glanced back to Chuck, who was still talking to the harried father. "I don't know. If he is bad, this the best act I've ever seen."

"OK, I've called for a clean-up crew," Jimmy said. "They'll have the place looking like nothing ever happened in a couple of hours."

"Just phone in a police report, moron," Casey replied. "Let him think the place was robbed."

"I'm not worried about Chuck; I'm worried about his sister and her boyfriend. They own the place. Did you see the file on her? Had to raise Chuck since she was fifteen but still got through medical school with honors." Jimmy picked up a framed picture of Ellie Bartowski and her boyfriend, Devon Woodcomb. "The good news is, they're both working twelve-hour shifts at the hospital so they won't be home until 7. You want to try to pawn this off? She's a tough one…in a sort of Demi Moore's Über-hot younger sister kind of way."

Carina gave Jimmy a weird look. "Sarah, do you think you can keep Chuck there until we're done?"

Sarah again looked at Chuck, who was talking to the young ballerina. "I think he'll take care of that for us," she said with a smile.

She watched Chuck line up the ballerina in front of a wall of TVs, all of them showing her. Chuck must have linked the father's video camera into the store's system. Chuck knelt down so he was at eye level with the ballerina.

"You ready?" he asked her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm usually in the back row," she responded.

"Why?"

"I'm too tall. I block the other ballerinas."

"Can I tell you a secret? But you can't tell the other girls. Real ballerinas ARE tall."

Chuck moved out of the way as the young lady started her performance. The crowd went wild for it, and both father and daughter were ecstatic. And of even bigger relief to Sarah, nobody even noticed she was in the store.

She turned away from the crowd and got on her phone, completely unable to get the smile off of her face. "If this Chuck Bartowski is really an agent, we may as well resign now. None of us can put on that good of a show."

"So what's the play, boss?" Jimmy asked.

"I think he needs to go on a date," Sarah replied with a knowing raise of her eyebrow.

"Are you sure you can handle this guy?" Carina asked.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," she retorted with a bit of annoyance.

She walked back to the Nerd Herd desk and waited for Chuck to deal with a short, irate bald man who appeared to be the floor supervisor and took his job much too seriously.

"That was a wonderful thing you did," Sarah told him as he walked back to the desk.

"Thanks," Chuck replied shyly. "It's just part of customer service."

"I've been to a lot of stores and I've never seen any employee go the lengths you just did to help someone. Even if they were working on commission."

"Well, it just seems like the right thing to do. Although I hope you don't mind me asking, why are you here? Don't you have an assistant or a gopher to take care of things like this for you?"

"Sometimes I like to get out and run my own errands. Keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, as it were. Plus my assistant goes through enough hell already with all of the fan mail."

"I'm certainly glad I was able to help in lieu of your assistant being neck deep in fan letters."

"And pairs of underwear sometimes."

Chuck bristled at that. "They send you theirs or do they request yours?"

"Yes," Sarah said in exasperation, which made Chuck laugh. That gave her an authentic smile as opposed to the ones she was trained to use at the opportune moments. The longer Sarah talked to this guy, the more she liked him. It was time to go in for the kill.

"I haven't been in Los Angeles in a long while and I'd really like to go out and enjoy myself. I'm kind of hoping you could come along."

She then fixed him with her best 'come hither' look, guaranteed 100% effectiveness. "That is…if you're free."

"He's free!" Morgan shouted the answer for Chuck. "He's got nothing but time on his hands. He is VERY available. You guys are going to have a great time!"

Chuck turned around, ready to kill Morgan. "What's that sir? Xerox machines? I'll get right on that!"

Chuck turned back to Sarah and shrugged in surrender. "Apparently, my schedule's wide open."

"Great!" she replied.

 _ **Echo Park, Los Angeles  
**_ _ **September 22, 2015  
**_ _ **7:30 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked into the apartment to find Ellie and Awesome curled up on the couch and watching TV. Fortunately for Sarah and the team, the NSA cleaning crew did their jobs to perfection. Not a single thing was out of place.

"Hi Chuck," Ellie said.

"Ellie, Captain, don't freak out. Remain calm. I have some news."

Naturally, they were on edge. But before Chuck could say anything, Morgan ran in and jumped on Chuck's back.

"Chuck's got a date with Spy Girl!"

"What?" Ellie exclaimed. "You have a date with Sarah Walker?"

"Way to go, Chuck," Devon added. "That's awesome."

Chuck pasted a smile on his face. But for reasons he couldn't figure out, he wasn't nearly as excited about the date as everyone else.


	3. Trust Me, Chuck

_Hello. Thanks for all of the reviews thus far. Lots of interesting critiques regarding the story. (and one person sending a PM ranting on their hatred of original characters). I know sometimes people get tired of having Jimmy Slade pop up or that he seems almost indestructible. But I knew Sarah's team had to have four members on it, and I didn't really have a good idea for the fourth person. Not to mention that person would have to replace Bryce on the show. And as for Jimmy's indestructibility, Sarah sums it up quite well in this chapter._

 _Once again, I borrow a lot from the actual canon of the show, which is still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. But of course, that was the idea: to go through the early seasons of the show with the TV show the tweak in the storyline. Sometimes I actually miss, like when I still had Chuck say Bryce was an accountant in Chapter 2. Thankfully, nobody caught that (and it's been corrected)._

 _Anyway, writer's rant over. Enjoy this chapter, and please keep sending those reviews. I'm always happy to answer questions about the story._

* * *

 _ **Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA  
September 22, 2015  
7:30 PM PDT**_

"Chuck's got a date with Spy Girl!"

"What? You have a date with Sarah Walker?"

"Way to go, Chuck. That's awesome."

"OK, everybody relax," Chuck said. "And Morgan, get off of me." Morgan slid down to the ground but still acted like a puppy wanting a treat from its owner. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Not a big deal?!" Morgan was incredulous. "One of the biggest stars on TV asked you out. And in case you missed it, SHE asked YOU out. If we were at Comic Con, you'd be, like, a total legend!"

"It's not even a real date. I'm just going out with her and a couple of the other cast members."

Ellie nodded. "You're right, Chuck. It's just going out and having fun. We shouldn't be overreacting. So, who else will be there?"

"I think Carina Miller and Jimmy Slade are coming with us."

"Oh, my God! He is so hot!" Had she not had a sense of decorum, Ellie would have jumped on Chuck's back like Morgan did. "You have to get his autograph for me! I'll wash the dishes for a month if you can get it!"

"Uh, babe?" Devon was a bit irritated by Ellie suddenly acting like a 12-year-old at a One Direction concert.

"Hey, he's on my freebie list. I'm allowed. Besides, you only ever watch the show when Carina gets a lot of screen time."

"I do not. You are so wrong."

"Please. I caught you slowing down the DVR once to get a look at her ass."

"You know, El, I have to side with Awesome on this one," Morgan said. "Carina is as hot as Sarah, in my humble opinion. She does have a lovely caboose, and I have studied the female form for a significant period of my life."

"You have no idea the level to which I know that," Ellie hissed through gritted teeth.

"Where are you guys headed?" Devon asked to head off any further uncomfortable conversation between Morgan and Ellie.

"I'm not sure," Chuck replied. "Sarah said they hadn't been in Los Angeles in a while, so they want me to come up with a place. I was thinking El Compadre."

"Good choice. Very fun, great food, and if all goes well, you'll get in the senorita's pantalónes," Devon said with a wink, which made Chuck grimace.

"OK, well I still have to work tomorrow and get some stuff at the Large Mart, so until then…" Chuck started going to his bedroom. "You can go home, Morgan."

Morgan shuffled his feet and turned around, leaving the apartment with his head down.

 _ **Large Mart - Burbank, CA  
September 23, 2015  
11:30 AM PDT**_

Chuck shook his head as he looked at the metal shelves that seemed to reach to the sky in this place. Ellie completed her residency last year, and Devon was one of the top cardiologists in the city. Their combined income was enough to buy a mansion in Bel Air, yet Ellie insisted on buying staple items in bulk. And given her little brother worked right next to a Large Mart, she figured it worked out for her just fine. For Chuck, not so much. Harry Tang had already been on his case today regarding the number of Nerd Herd calls. Even though Big Mike hadn't started interviewing for the Assistant Manager position, Harry was acting as if he already had the job. Chuck wondered how long it would be before Harry started wearing a custom-made polo shirt announcing to the world that he was the Assistant Manager. He put the over/under at two days.

He walked down the aisles, but the paper towels Ellie wanted him to pick up weren't in their usual location. He spotted a man in the aisle.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you know where they sell the…"

Chuck suddenly froze. Yesterday, he saw a bunch of images flash through his mind when he realized the police were busy on the I-5. It happened later when he saw General Stanfield. The same picture of Stanfield flooded his mind again, along with an image of C-4 plastic explosives, an exploding building and the passport of the man in front of him: Vuc Andric, a Serbian demolitions expert.

"What do you want?" Andric asked in a foreboding tone.

"Um…no, nothing. Sorry. Nothing at all."

Chuck started to walk away, but he got the feeling Andric was following him. That was because Andric was following him. Chuck turned the corner and sprinted to find the nearest employee. He tried to tell her about Andric, but Andric was going through the checkout being very friendly to the cashier. Chuck turned back to the warehouse to see customers and employees walk around like nothing was going on.

Andric eyed Chuck and kept his Sig Sauer underneath his coat. He then got out his mobile phone. He was playing a hunch, but he didn't want to take a chance.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
September 23, 2015  
6:00 PM PDT**_

Sarah strapped the holster containing three throwing daggers to her ankle. She considered packing her Smith & Wesson 5906, but she didn't want to go overboard arming herself. If those daggers came out in a crowded location…and it was usually very crowded wherever she made an appearance…the entire team's cover would be blown. That was the reason Carina and Jimmy were joining Chuck and her on the date.

She was putting on her custom-fitted Kevlar vest when her phone rang. It was Graham.

"You're on your own on this one, Sarah. I can't help you if something goes wrong. You better hope your whole crew is up to this."

"We're ready. Casey's monitoring things and I've got Carina and Jimmy watching our backs. It's just…" Sarah paused for a moment, remembering everything Chuck did at the Buy More yesterday. "…I don't know about this guy."

"Nice guys aren't sent government secrets. Get that data. If he tries to run…kill him."

Graham hung up. Sarah stared at her phone for a moment. Graham could be right. Sarah was fairly certain this Chuck was just a regular guy, but fairly certain wasn't completely certain. Why would Bryce steal an entire database of government secrets and send them to a seemingly-innocent Buy More employee? It didn't make any sense.

There was a knock on her door, and Sarah went to answer it, keeping one hand on her gun.

"Look on the bright side, Walker," Carina said when Sarah opened the door. "If you kiss this guy, he won't cry like the last guy you dated."

Sarah made a face at her as Carina walked in. "You're hysterical. That was two years ago and as it turns out, he had good reason to do that."

"Yeah, poor Jimmy," Carina said with considerable derision. "Some gorgeous babe had the hots for him. Doesn't that just suck?"

Sarah rolled her eyes in aggravation "Why are you here, anyway? The limousine won't pick us up for thirty minutes."

"Two things. Firstly, I wanted to borrow the pair of Jimmy Choo's that Casey customized for you."

Sarah went to her closet and pulled out the pair of shoes Carina requested. "And the other thing?"

Carina held up two long needles and a small jar. "Compliments of your co-star. Jimmy figured there would be a problem if you pulled out your gun, so he came up with this."

Carina opened the jar and dipped the needle tips into a red liquid. "Just wear them in your hair and no one will be the wiser if you have to use them."

Sarah went back to the mirror. She braided her hair to be off of her shoulders and then placed the needles inside of the braid. She gave it a good look and was satisfied.

"Good thinking, Carina," Sarah said.

"I figured you weren't going to wear anything with long sleeves, so this was the best we could come up with. Jimmy actually has tranq shooters he can attach to his wrists that are loaded with that toxin. He lifts his middle finger fast, and the nerve impulses in his wrist will set them off. I think he got that from a Bond film."

So, Jimmy can knock someone out by giving them the finger?" Sarah couldn't help but smile at that. "That sounds like something he'd come up with. But you two will be armed, right?"

Carina waved her Sig Sauer P226 SL. "This is not my first mission." She then handed Sarah a pin. "Digital camera to send a live feed to Casey in the van in addition to the restaurant's surveillance cameras. Jimmy and I have them disguised as buttons on our attire."

"Good," Sarah replied as she put on the pin. "I think we're as prepared as we can be."

Carina noticed Sarah's uneasiness. "Casey could be right, you know. Bartowski could be playing us."

"But why ransack his own apartment? How would he even know we were coming after him?"

"Why did Bryce send him the database in the first place? The Buy More could be a drop-off point, and Bartowski could be the courier."

"That's quite a disguise for a drop-off point. Nobody seems to do a lot of work there except for Chuck and that Harry Tang. Given his obsessiveness about being in charge that would have to be quite an act, too."

Someone knocked on the door. "Let's just slow-play this," Sarah said as she went to the door. 'I can get him to open up. Just follow my lead."

Sarah opened the door to find Jimmy standing there. "The limo's here and Casey is set at the restaurant. Ready?"

Sarah gave a little smile. She was so glad she dragged Jimmy to an upscale shopping district not long after they met. He didn't really get the concept of wearing the right fashion labels. But he was getting better.

Sarah looked at Carina, who walked towards the door. Sarah turned back to Jimmy. "Let's do this."

 _ **Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA  
September 23, 2015  
6:45 PM PDT**_

Chuck exited his apartment to wait for the limousine to show. Now that the date was about to begin, he was a lot more enthusiastic about it. Of course, part of that may have been because of the long day he had. He still couldn't understand what happened in the Large Mart. Who was that red-headed creepy guy? And why did visions of explosives and collapsing buildings fill his head? It was starting to drive him crazy. To make matters worse, returning to the Buy More to discover Jeff and Lester had left him plenty of irate customers at the Nerd Herd desk…not to mention Harry Tang getting on his case about the plenty of irate customers at the Nerd Herd desk…meant he was pretty exhausted when he got home an hour ago.

Ellie walked out of the apartment with a bouquet of flowers. "These were left over from the party," she said as she handed it to him. It only made sense. She went through his closet to pick out the best thing for him to wear on the date. "And don't forget the old girlfriend rule…"

"Right. Got it. No talking about Jill," Chuck replied.

Ellie looked at him and smiled. Going out on a date, even with someone like Sarah Walker, wasn't going to solve all of Chuck's problems. She supported him as best as she could after he was expelled and forced to take an $11 per hour job at the Buy More. But at least tonight was a positive step forward.

"Aces, Charles. You're aces," Ellie told him.

That put a big smile on Chuck's face. "A Dad quote. I'm impressed. Love ya, sis."

"I love you. Have fun."

Chuck heard the honk of a car on the street. "I will. I'll try."

Chuck left…and Morgan was hiding behind him. "It's just…they grow up so fast," Morgan said sentimentally.

"Go home, Morgan," Ellie said as a wave of nausea threatened to make its presence known. "Just…go home. Go."

 _ **El Compadre Restaurant - Burbank, CA  
September 23, 2015  
8:00 PM PDT**_

It may not have been a date in the strictest sense of the word, but it had been a long time since Chuck had this much fun.

He had expected Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy to be the typical stuck-up Hollywood actors, but he could not have been more wrong. Carina was a bit guarded, but Jimmy seemed to know a lot of the same movies and TV shows he knew, and Sarah had that smile that made him feel good every time she brought it out. And that was often. Even better, the restaurant was bending over backwards for their table, bringing the finest wine and keeping the mariachi band close by but not too close.

"I have to admit, I thought you'd be getting mobbed right now," Chuck said to the three of them. "Doesn't the paparazzi follow your every move? And I would have thought people would have been begging and pleading for your autographs."

"Well, it's amazing what giving the _maitre d'_ $500 will get you in a restaurant," Jimmy said.

"Besides, the paparazzi wouldn't care about us," Carina added. "They'd be after you."

"Wait. Why me?" Chuck asked nervously.

"They know who we are. But they'd have a great new story of trying to find out who you are and why you're on a date with Sarah."

"Oh, well that makes sense. I guess. But do they really care that much about whom you date?"

"A lot more than you think, Chuck. I've been linked to a few guys myself."

"And sometimes entire area codes," Casey muttered from the surveillance van, which caused Sarah and Jimmy to bite down hard to prevent themselves from laughing.

"So, Chuck," Sarah began to get everybody concentrating again. "You live in Echo Park?"

"Yeah, I live with my sister and her boyfriend, Captain Awesome."

"No," Sarah said with a laugh. "So you call him Captain Awesome?"

"Yeah, wait until you meet him. Everything he does is awesome. Climbing mountains, jumping out of planes…flossing…"

Sarah laughed even harder. "That's funny."

"Well, I'm a funny guy."

"Clearly. Which is good because I am not funny."

Carina and Jimmy glanced at Sarah. Nobody else would be able to notice it, but both of them…and no doubt Casey as well…suspected this was Sarah talking and not Agent Walker. Carina had known her old friend long enough to know when she was letting her guard down. Casey had spotted it from time to time, the most recent being when Sarah had a huge smile watching the young ballerina at the Buy More yesterday. And since Sarah went to Jimmy a lot to talk about things the other two didn't want to hear, he learned quickly how to spot the signs.

"Is that your big secret, by the way?" Chuck asked. "Because I've been sitting here trying to figure out what's wrong with you, and I was thinking either she's a cannibal or she's just not that funny. And I was pulling for cannibal because I've never met one before."

"Um, not a cannibal, but I did just come out of a relationship so I may come with baggage."

"Well, I can be your very own baggage handler," Chuck offered, which led to a bit of an uncomfortable silence. "So, you were dating this guy?"

"We dated a bit while we were doing the show up in Toronto, but Bruce couldn't handle the long schedule I kept, so…"

"Bruce? Yeah, you give me crap for being Chuck and you went out with a Bruce? That's nice."

"There's a Bruce Springsteen," Sarah said, not entirely thrilled about being challenged like that.

"And there's a Chuck Norris," Chuck replied.

"This could go on for a while," Carina said. "How about we call it a tie and save Jimmy and me the aggravation?"

"Please," Jimmy begged.

Chuck laughed at that. "So how did all of you end up on the show?"

Sarah gave a little smile. They had the answers to that question down to a science. "It was pure luck on my part. You know how Lana Turner was discovered in an ice cream shop and Pamela Anderson was at a football game? It was the same for me. It was a Starbucks in West Hollywood. A producer there thought I could make it. I did a commercial here and there and then I got this show."

"And Sarah knew me from way back," Carina continued. "I did some theater in the West End in London, but she encouraged me to audition for the role of Jill Garrett when she was introduced in season two. And as they say, the rest is history."

"What about you?" Chuck asked Jimmy.

"I wasn't making much noise in Hollywood. I worked a bit with the Groundlings, and before that I was at Second City and the Improv Olympic in Chicago. Apparently I was too old and too attractive to be a cast member on _Saturday Night Live_ , but then the role of Lance McCall became available and I got it. I can't lie: being the new kid on the block was very intimidating."

"But we welcomed him with open arms," Carina said.

"And in your case, open legs," Casey muttered over their earpieces.

Sarah did a spit take with the margarita she was drinking. She would have been furious with Casey for doing that if what he said wasn't so damn funny…and somewhat true.

"You OK?" Chuck asked her with a grin.

"Sorry," she replied as she wiped off her mouth with her napkin. "I'm just remembering a story about these two from a couple of years ago."

Sarah looked furtively at Jimmy, hoping he could cover for what she did.

"Oh, you mean the underwear story?" Jimmy asked.

Sarah nodded quickly while pretending to stifle a laugh and failing. "God, that was classic."

"Come on. Chuck doesn't want to hear that."

"Actually, this sounds interesting," Chuck said with piqued curiosity. "Anything involving underwear has to be good."

Jimmy put his hands up in surrender. "OK, but I wash my hands of anything that happens. For the first two months I was on the show, Carina thought I was gay."

"Really?" Chuck's grin stretched from ear to ear, which definitely made Sarah's night.

"I think it was the fifth episode I was on. The one in Paris, if I remember correctly."

"I remember that. Great episode. You and Carina were hysterical in it."

"There was that one scene where Jill and Lance had to fool the bad guys and make them believe they were a newlywed couple, so we did that quick striptease and got our clothes off. Now of course, we're not really naked; it's all camera angles and strategically-placed attire to make it look that way. Well, we're kissing and Carina gets annoyed that something was happening with me. Or should I say, NOT happening with me."

Chuck's eyes widened, and his grin threatened to break his jaw. "You mean?"

"Oh, she was NOT happy about that. She blew the take on purpose six times in a row. Finally she gave up, did the scene correctly, and just assumed I was gay. Of course, all she had to do was ask pretty much anybody else, and they would have told her the truth."

"What?"

"They have this apparatus male actors can wear during scenes like that which will keep them…taped down, as it were. I suppose I could have told her, but what would be the fun in that? And she got pissed at me when she found out I was doing that."

Chuck laughed as he glanced cautiously at Carina, who was doing a slow burn despite the fact Jimmy's story was a complete lie. "Did you know?" he asked Sarah.

"I suspected it, but I didn't tell Carina. She was giving me grief about dating Bruce and I thought a little payback was in order. But I knew Jimmy was that considerate because when we had our first kissing scene in the middle of that season, he asked me if I had a favorite flavor of mouthwash. I thought that was a weird question until he explained he would use whatever flavor I preferred to make things easier, regardless of whether he liked the flavor or not."

"Yeah," Jimmy said. "At the risk of sounding like Neil Young, she's a cinnamon girl and I am not a fan of that flavor. But I did it to be nice. Of course, she was mad at me one day for reasons I still don't know when we had one of these scenes, and I got a mouthful of Philly cheesesteak breath for my efforts."

Sarah felt a little more relaxed as the entire table laughed over that. Rescuing each other from capture, confiscating dangerous weapons, or taking on large groups of enemies were simple compared to little moments like these. But she trusted her team because they always came through.

"So Chuck," Sarah continued. "What about you? What skeletons do you have in your closet? Any…secrets? Any women?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah. Actually, back in college there was someone…" His voice trailed off and Sarah waited intently for him to finish. "…Actually that's all over with now, and her restraining orders are very specific."

Sarah laughed. Chuck thought he could live happily the rest of his life if he got to see that smile and hear that laugh every day.

"I like you, Chuck," Sarah said, which gave him a smile as well.

~/^\~

Chuck and Sarah walked across the bridge with Carina and Jimmy trailing a few steps behind them. Carina claimed they were trying to give Chuck and Sarah some breathing room to talk, but they were actually keeping an eye on things. Plus, having only Sarah within earshot might relax Chuck enough to talk more.

"So, where are we going?" Sarah asked him.

"Well, do you like music?"

"I guess."

Chuck laughed. "You guess? What's your favorite band?" Sarah froze at that answer, as she rarely ever had a mark more interested in her than they were of themselves. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh."

"God, I'm not funny, I don't listen to music; this must be your worst date ever, right?" she said with a hint of embarrassment.

Chuck wasn't paying attention because he saw a police escort under the bridge. This triggered another series of images, and he saw both Stanfield and the scary guy from the Large Mart again. This time, the image of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel was added to the mix. Sarah looked back towards Jimmy, hoping he could shed some light on why Chuck suddenly stopped talking, but Jimmy threw his hands up in surrender.

She turned back to Chuck. "I was waiting for you to say no."

Chuck appeared to be in a fog, but he shook it off. "Sorry, sorry. I kind of zoned out there for a second. But no! No, I've had much, much worse dates…experiences…with women. Back in 11th grade…"

"Oh, 11th grade? You have to go back that far?" Sarah couldn't stop laughing at that.

 _ **Aragon West – Burbank, CA  
September 23, 2015  
9:30 PM PDT**_

The four arrived at the club where Chuck told them a great band was playing. Carina contacted the limo driver to send him there while Jimmy relayed the information to Casey. They paid the cover charge, and Jimmy slipped the bouncer a couple of hundred dollar bills to make sure they weren't hassled through the night. Descending the stairs, they took in the scene. The band, Foreign Born, was as good as Chuck boasted. Carina and Jimmy went out to the floor to dance while Chuck and Sarah sat down with their drinks.

"They're good," Sarah told Chuck.

"Good! Good," he replied.

"Case, are you set up?" Carina asked quietly from the dance floor.

"Give me two minutes," he replied as he snuck down the alley to gain access to the club's surveillance system.

As Carina and Jimmy danced, they noticed a half-dozen agents in suits coming down the two stairwells into the club. Sarah's view of the stairwells was blocked because of where she sat with Chuck, but she saw the cold look on Carina's face and the sudden hard set of the jaw on Jimmy. She knew there was trouble. And staying put was the worst thing to do.

"Let's dance," Sarah told Chuck.

"I'm not really much of a dancer…" but Chuck was cut off by Sarah pulling him up and onto the dance floor. She started dancing to the music, her eyes locked on Chuck the entire time. Chuck couldn't believe how well this date was going.

Carina and Jimmy moved across the dance floor to be near them as one agent approached from their right.

"Spin and dip," Carina told Jimmy. Jimmy grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him, spinning her in the process. Carina leaned back as Jimmy held her hands. Her left heel went into the air and Jimmy pressed a button on Carina's bracelet. A small but sharp dagger launched out of the heel of her shoe, nailing the agent dead-on. Sarah turned Chuck so he didn't see the agent fall.

Two more agents approached, attempting to flank Chuck and Sarah. Sarah danced more seductively to keep Chuck's attention on her.

"Save a horse; ride a cowboy," Jimmy told Carina. Carina took two steps towards Jimmy and leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around him and putting her hands behind his neck. Jimmy stepped around so Carina and he were between the agents while Sarah pulled Chuck away. Jimmy reached out in both directions and flicked his middle fingers. The poisonous darts flew out of their launchers and hit the two agents.

"Three down, three to go," Carina said.

Sarah spotted two more. She kept her eyes locked on Chuck as she pulled the two needles out of her hair, shaking it out to its normal style. Chuck looked to the sky, completely mesmerized by Sarah. He never noticed her throwing the two needles at two more agents, who promptly went down from the poison on them.

Sarah danced around so she was behind Chuck, sliding her body against his and cupping his ass. She glanced behind her to see the last agent coming at her fast. She pulled a dagger out of her ankle holster, sent it into the agent's stomach, and kicked him in the face to finish him off. She then lay on the ground between Chuck's legs and held her hands out for Chuck to pull her up.

"I'm in," Casey said over their earpieces. "Get Bartowski out of there. There's at least twenty more agents here."

"Go Sarah," Jimmy said. I'll get the limo. Carina, make sure they aren't followed."

As Sarah grabbed Chuck's arm and pulled him towards the exit, she took note of a man standing there with a long scar on his face. He didn't make a move towards them. If anything, he looked amused.

Jimmy ran to the back of the club and located the limousine. He knocked on the driver's door. He got no response, so he pulled the door open.

"Oh, shit," he said fearfully as the limo driver fell out of the driver's seat. His throat had been slashed. Jimmy fished the keys out of the man's pocket and started the limousine.

"Whoah, where's the fire?" Chuck asked Sarah. He turned back towards the club to see Carina running out and carrying a gun. "What the hell is going on?"

Sarah didn't have time to answer as an SUV sped towards them. Carina opened fire, but the SUV kept coming. From the opposite direction, the limousine came screaming around the other corner. The limo skidded to block the SUV from getting to Chuck and Sarah. The driver opened fire with two guns.

Jimmy stuck his head out of the window. "GET IN! NOW!"

Sarah ran for the door as Jimmy tossed Sarah's Smith & Wesson to her. "Get in the limo, Chuck!"

"Tell me what's going on!"

"GET IN THE LIMO RIGHT NOW!"

Chuck was too scared to not listen. He didn't know what was going on. He got in the back of the limousine as Sarah got in the other side. Jimmy floored it and headed down Glendale Blvd. with the SUV in pursuit.

"Seatbelts!" Jimmy shouted from the front.

"Just tell me what's going on!" Chuck demanded as Sarah and he put on their seatbelts.

"What's going on is that half of L.A. is trying to kill us and I ended up as Happy frickin' Hogan!"

"Chuck, you received a file the other day from Bryce Larkin," Sarah said quickly.

"Wait, Bryce Larkin? Your former co-star?"

We used to work together at the CIA."

The limousine made a hard turn around the corner and Chuck could barely hang on. It was a good thing Jimmy told them to buckle up.

"The CIA? What are you talking about?"

All of us are agents for the government. Me, Carina, Jimmy, and our other partner, John Casey. The TV show is our cover."

Chuck stared at her before laughing his head off. "Oh, come on! I'm supposed to believe that four actors who play spies on TV are REAL spies?"

"Do you see any cameras filming this?" Jimmy called from the front of the limo.

"Chuck, these people are after you," Sarah said.

Chuck was beyond scared by this point. "Why, why me? I'm nobody! I'm the supervisor of a Nerd Herd at a Buy More. Maybe one day I'll be Assistant Store Manager, but I don't even know if I want that job."

A series of shots shattered the rear window of the limousine.

"Stay down!" Sarah commanded as she pulled Chuck down in the seat and readied her gun. "Jimmy, time to go on offense."

Jimmy threw the steering wheel hard to the left and the entire limousine spun around. Sarah fired at the SUV from the passenger side window in the back while Jimmy shot at the SUV from the driver's side. He gunned the engine as the windshield on the SUV was shot out. At the last second, he steered the car slightly to the right. The limo clipped the bumper of the SUV, launching it into the air because of its higher center of gravity. The SUV rolled over to its right, sliding along the pavement on its side. The limousine skidded out of control. Jimmy tried to steer it out of trouble but it was too late. The limousine crashed into the side of a building. Chuck and Sarah were thrown around in the back while Jimmy got a face full of airbag.

Sarah looked over at Chuck, who appeared to be dazed. She took off her seatbelt and grabbed Chuck's face. "Chuck, Chuck, are you OK?"

Chuck sat for a few more seconds in a daze before shaking it off. "Yeah, I'm OK."

Sarah unbuckled his belt. "We have to go. Casey said there were at least twenty agents there."

Chuck tried the door but it wouldn't budge. Sarah saw Jimmy standing outside the door. "Cover your face, Chuck."

Chuck did as she commanded and Jimmy smashed the window with his gun. He then got a hold of the door and ripped it open.

"Let's go," he said as Chuck gingerly stepped out of the car. Jimmy held on to him as he helped Sarah get out of the car as well. The three started walking away from the limousine.

"Any movement over there?" Sarah asked.

Jimmy looked over at the SUV as he reloaded his guns. "If anybody is still alive in that thing, then that is my next car."

"Chuck, what happened to that email Bryce sent you?" Sarah asked. "Did you delete it?"

"No, I opened it. It was a line from Zork. It was a video game we used to play. There was, like, a riddle and I solved it and then there were pictures. Lots and lots of pictures."

"You saw them?"

"Was I not supposed to?"

They were interrupted by the roar of an engine. An SUV similar to the one that chased them was bearing down on the three from behind at high speed.

Jimmy grabbed Chuck and Sarah and threw them out of the SUV's path. "Get him out of here!"

He pivoted and pulled both of his guns out. He emptied both clips at the SUV, aiming one of the guns at the ground so the bullets would ricochet and hit the SUV from underneath. The SUV continued to come at him. Jimmy jumped into the air as the SUV got to him and he landed hard on the windshield. He took his gun and aimed it inside the driver's side window, shooting at anything that moved. The SUV careened out of control and hit a dirt pile on a construction site. Jimmy was thrown from the vehicle as it flipped through the air several times, eventually landing on its roof. Jimmy lay on the dirt in the construction zone.

"Oh, that was stupid," he muttered as every part of his body was in pain.

Chuck and Sarah ran down the street to the next intersection. Chuck was overloaded with adrenaline at this point and scared out of his mind. He never saw anything on the TV show remotely resembling this, and all of it was really happening.

"What about Jimmy?" he said as the two ran. "There's no way he could have survived that."

"You'd be amazed at the things he can survive," Sarah replied. "He's…a little crazy."

"He jumped onto a speeding SUV! What the hell does he call that?"

Sarah threw her hands up. "Wednesday?"

She stopped near the entrance to a garage at a corporate office. "Casey, track our signal and come get us. Have Carina get Jimmy. He's two blocks southeast of our location."

She turned to Chuck. "Did you make a backup of the email? Do you have an external drive or memory card?"

"No, no," Chuck replied. "The file deleted itself. I tried to get it back but I couldn't."

Another SUV came roaring out of the parking garage.

"Chuck, let's go!" Sarah shouted, but Chuck was borderline catatonic at this point.

Sarah looked towards the attendant's booth and saw a sign that said "emergency blockade button." She also saw the barriers between the SUV and them. She reached for a dagger in her ankle, threw it at the button, and tackled Chuck to the ground. The barriers shot upward just as the SUV got to them. The SUV was decimated.

Casey's surveillance van pulled up. "Come on, Chuck," Sarah said as she pulled him up while Casey got out of the van.

"What is going on?" Casey said.

"We barely escaped from these agents. Chuck confirmed Bryce sent him the email. Chuck opened it and the file destroyed itself, but he saw its contents."

"What the hell do you mean? He saw those pictures?"

Chuck's head cleared enough for him to realize what was going on, and he didn't want any part of these people. He started to run.

"Chuck, no!" Sarah cried.

Suddenly Chuck stopped running. He saw the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in the distance, and all of the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place with his flash.

"They're going to kill him," he said.

"Kill who?" Casey asked.

"Stanfield. The general. General Stanfield. That NATO guy." Neither Sarah nor Casey looked convinced. "Look, something is wrong with me, OK? I don't know what it is, but something is very, very wrong with me and I'm remembering things I shouldn't have."

"OK, Chuck. Talk to me," Sarah said. "Like what?"

"I don't know. For example, there was a Serbian demolitions expert at the Large Mart today. That's kind of odd, wouldn't you say? Look, last week the NSA intercepted some blueprints of a hotel. That hotel right there." Chuck pointed towards the Westin Bonaventure.

"And then the CIA found the schematics of a bomb in Prague. The bomb is in that hotel!"

"So he was working for Bryce," Casey said, ready to put two in the back of Chuck's head.

"No, Case. He opened Bryce's email," Sarah replied. "Chuck, those pictures you saw were encoded with secrets. Government secrets. If you saw them, then you know them."

"There…there were thousands of them," Chuck said in disbelief.

"So all of our secrets are in his head?" Casey said.

"Chuck IS the computer," Sarah said. "Chuck, is there enough time to defuse the bomb?"

Chuck was visibly shaking. "Look, I can't help you. I wish I could, but I can't. Call Bryce! He's the guy who can save the day."

"Bryce is dead!" Sarah exclaimed. "He died sending those secrets to you."

Chuck stood there motionless, unable to grasp any sense of reality…until Casey fired a shot into the air.

"And a lot of people will be joining him if we don't act fast. So pretty please, can we defuse the bomb now?"

The three climbed into Casey's van and sped towards the Westin Bonaventure. Chuck charged into the hotel and leapt through the fountains in the lobby to get to the correct ballroom in spite of Sarah and Casey trying to stop him.

"Where's the bomb?" Casey asked him as they entered the San Francisco ballroom, where General Stanfield was giving his speech.

Chuck spotted a serving tray in the middle of the room. The crowd gasped as they saw Sarah and Casey come in.

"Well, I'm glad we have a couple of celebrities in our presence," Stanfield started before an L.A. Police officer walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. "Ladies and gentlemen, we may have a cautionary situation here. We're going to take a short break."

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey ran over to the serving tray and opened it up. Fifty pounds of C4 were connected to a laptop computer.

"Jimmy, how fast can you get to the Westin Bonaventure?" Sarah asked.

"Carina just found me. We can be there in two minutes," he replied.

The clock on the laptop showed less than ninety seconds. Sarah and Casey looked for alternatives.

"Disconnect the laptop," Sarah said.

"There's no trigger," Casey replied. "The cables?"

"No, definitely a trap. Chuck, is there anything else you remember about the bomb?"

Before he could answer, his phone rang. It was Morgan. "Hey, Morgan."

"Hey, how's it going?" Morgan asked.

"Little busy right now, buddy."

"In a good way? Details!"

"Why are you calling?"

"You know, just lying on your bed. Ellie's with the Captain, my computer's got a case of the Demova's…"

Chuck hung up the phone, a big light bulb having gone off in his head. "I think I have an idea. This is a Prism Express laptop, OK? We sell these at our store. It has a DOS override."

The clock was down to thirty seconds. "I think I can do this. I can do this. Please?"

"He's our best shot," Sarah said. Casey relented and let Chuck at the computer.

Chuck typed a search into the computer. "Mr. Bomb, meet Mr. Internet."

"He's searching for porn," Casey said in disgust.

"Nuh-uh," Chuck said as he accessed Irene Demova's website. The virus downloaded and shorted out the computer with less than a second to spare.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "You did it," Sarah told him.

"I did it. I did it. I…defused a real bomb." Then reality hit. "What if I was wrong?" Chuck began to hyperventilate.

"Don't puke on the C4," Casey said as he left.

 _ **Westin Bonaventure Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
September 23, 2015  
11:00 PM PDT**_

"So what do we do?" Carina asked.

"This could have been a fluke. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut," Casey said.

"What if it wasn't?" Sarah asked. "What if he could stop something even bigger?"

"Fine, put him in a psych tank and let him stare at four rubber walls for the next ten years."

"Yeah, because that worked so well when they did it to me," Jimmy replied with considerable acidity towards Casey.

"How does this even work?" Carina asked.

"There is no pattern to it. Anything can set off a flash. Sights, sounds, even smells. The only good news is that Chuck recovered quickly according to what Sarah and Casey saw. I had searing headaches when it happened to me way back when."

"And what do we do about his friends, Case?" Sarah asked. "His job? What about his sister?"

Chuck slowly approached the group. "Wait, what about my sister?"

"Sorry, Chuck," Jimmy replied. "We're just trying to figure this thing out."

"No no no. You have to leave my family and my friends out of this."

"We'll see," Casey replied, which didn't sound like much of a guarantee he'd listen to Chuck.

"Look, Bryce sent that email to me. I'm the one remembering all of your secrets. Which means you have to listen to me. All of you."

Although it wasn't the most irate expression Chuck ever had, it was enough to get the point across. "Right now, I want to go home."

Chuck turned and walked out of the room. Casey went to grab him, but he was held back by Jimmy and Carina.

"Now what?" Carina asked. "How do we convince him to work with us?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Now you know why I wanted to recuse myself from this. I can't be objective when it comes to the Intersect."

"Actually, I agree with Graham," Sarah told him. "You know what it was like to be in Chuck's situation. You're the one person who could understand what he's going through."

Jimmy walked to the window and looked out at the Los Angeles skyline. "There's one thing he'll need for certain. Something I never had when I went through this."

"What's that?"

 _ **Cabrillo Beach – San Pedro, CA  
September 24, 2015  
6:30 AM PDT**_

Chuck looked out over the ocean. Granted, most of the ocean was behind him, as he was facing east. But he liked to come here from time to time to watch the sun rise over the water. Usually it helped him relax, but even the view couldn't relieve the stress he went through last night. It didn't feel real to him. He had all of the government's secrets in his head, attempt after attempt was made on his life, and he was saved by a group of people who were not only spies on a TV show but were spies in real life. All of it was still hard for him to handle.

"How long have you been here?" Chuck asked Sarah, feeling her presence behind him.

"All night," she replied as she sat down next to him.

"There's nowhere I can run, is there."

Sarah gave a little smile. "Not from us."

"So are all of you here to haul me in?"

"No. Jimmy and I are the only ones here. He's waiting by the car, keeping an eye on things to be on the safe side, but I wanted some privacy."

Chuck hung his head. It was bad enough the one stroke of good luck he had in a long time turned out to be a ruse, but now it appeared it wasn't over by a longshot.

"Talk to me, Chuck," Sarah said gently.

He looked out at the ocean. "Yesterday I was making $11 an hour fixing computers. Now I have one in my brain, and I can't figure out why Bryce did this. Why he chose me."

He turned to look at Sarah. "What are you going to do with me? What happens now?"

"You'll work with us. We'll protect you and keep you safe."

"Even Casey? He didn't seem too thrilled to have met me."

"He's part of the team. And we're the best team of agents in the government. We've helped each other, even saved each other's lives, time and time again. We work well together, even if Casey doesn't always show it. But I trust these people more than I have trusted anybody in my life, and believe me when I say you can, too."

"What about my friends? My family?"

"Tell them nothing. We'll come up with a way for you to stay near us that makes sense. But you have to keep this to yourself. The less they know, the safer they'll be. But I need you to do one thing for me."

"Yeah?"

"Trust me, Chuck."

Chuck stared into her eyes. The last twelve hours felt completely out of his control. But looking at Sarah, he felt a calm he hadn't experienced in a long time. Right then, the stress of his expulsion, his breakup with Jill, the shame he felt when Ellie saw him for the first time after he came home, dealing with the Nerd Herd, all of it disappeared. Perhaps trusting Sarah was the wise thing to do. Given what her team did for him last night, it felt like a very safe bet.

He gave her a smile and she gently nudged his shoulder.

 _ **Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA  
September 24, 2015  
7:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck arrived home to Ellie and Morgan greeting him at the door, both of whom hugged him at the same time.

"Where have you been?" Ellie asked. "All night? I was worried sick! I even called Morgan."

"All night!" Morgan said on top of Ellie's berating of Chuck. "I even got to hang out with Ellie. How far did you get, man?!"

"Morgan, shut up."

Devon walked up to the three in the middle of their hug in hospital scrubs. "Early procedure today, so…group hug, huh?" He joined in. "Awesome."

Chuck stood there and let the trio welcome him home. But somehow the thought of being the government's most important asset didn't feel so awesome to him.


	4. Spy Humor

Hello again. Just adding the newest chapter to the story. Sorry it took so long, but I had a few issues at home to deal with and I had some difficulty trying to work the story with the new AU that is going on. I try to check as much as I can to see if I'm getting everything right, but I'm sure I make quite a number of mistakes.

This chapter is the start of how "Chuck vs. the Tango" would have gone in this AU. Again, the parts of the story we've seen are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. I hope they don't mind. The story jumps back and forth a bit over the span of a week, so keep an eye out. But I do promise in these next two chapters to go a bit off-book.

As always, please leave reviews. Thanks!

* * *

 _ **Wilshire Grand Hotel - Los Angeles, CA  
October 2, 2015  
7:30 PM PDT**_

" _How long have you been going out?"_

" _Where did you two meet?"_

" _Was it love at first sight?"_

" _Have you done any film or TV yourself?"_

Chuck Bartowski…or for the benefit of the media, Charles Carmichael…stood outside the art auction with Sarah on his arm and wearing a tuxedo it would take six months of employment with the Nerd Herd to even afford. It didn't take him long to discover why actors and actresses wore sunglasses a lot; he was practically blind from all of the flashbulbs going off. He pasted a decent smile on his face, mainly because Sarah made him practice it. It was probably a good idea because he felt like a bit of a fraud right now.

As he was pretending to be Sarah Walker's new boyfriend, the feeling was a bit too on-target.

"Come on, give this cute guy a break," Sarah Walker playfully admonished everyone as she hung on to Chuck's arm. "We've been going out for a little while, but he suggested the art auction tonight, and I can't resist seeing him dressed up like this."

She stood on her toes and gave Chuck a kiss on the cheek, holding his hand in both of hers. Both of them knew they were putting on an act, but Chuck wished it wasn't and a small part of Sarah wasn't completely acting.

"What do you think of them, Carina?" one reporter asked.

"It's wonderful," she said with the biggest smile Chuck had seen on her thus far, which he figured had to be acting. "I know my girl, and she is very smitten with this tall drink of water."

"Slade, any advice you can give to Charles?" another reporter asked.

"You mean, apart from avoiding you lot at all costs?" Jimmy replied with a grin, which got the crowd laughing. He was Carina's date for the evening, even though the media knew they were just friends, no matter how hard they tried to link the two together romantically. "Just relax and enjoy yourself is the only advice I'd give him."

Chuck took a sideways glance at Jimmy. If only being a spy was that easy.

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
September 29, 2015  
11:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck stood at the Nerd Herd desk, watching everything that was going on in the store. Which admittedly, was not much. Things had calmed down since the other night when he went on that wild trip in the limousine with people trying to kill him, ending with him saving a hotel full of people. Sarah took him out to dinner three nights ago at one of the best restaurants in the city. It was his reward for his bravery at the Westin. But more importantly, she wanted to make sure he was up for what they were about to do. Over the weekend, while Ellie and Awesome were out of town at a medical conference, Casey and Jimmy set up surveillance on the apartment, the courtyard, and the Buy More to make sure his family, friends, and co-workers were protected. Chuck protested at first, but Sarah reassured him it was something they did with all assets and they had no interest whatsoever in anyone's private life. Given how he was attacked at the Aragon West and Sarah's team saved his life several times, he was willing to take her at her word.

She called last night and told him to make sure Big Mike was around because she wanted to talk with him. Chuck asked her why, but she said she would explain when she got there. At this point, his imagination was replete with possibilities, many of which got him thinking he might be chased by the bad guys again, whoever they were.

Sarah walked into the Buy More. If it was possible, she looked even better than the first time she walked in. She was wearing a simple pink blouse and gray skirt, but she could have walked through a garbage dump and still turn every head. She waved Chuck to her, and Chuck was only too happy to say hello.

"Give me a kiss," she said quietly as he walked up to her.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.

"We've been on two dates, and we have to sell it."

Chuck looked around nervously before turning to Sarah again, who was still waiting for her kiss. Which she finally got…on the cheek.

"That's it?" Sarah asked with a bit of disappointment.

"I'm not really good with PDA."

"Well, let's go make this day better for all of us."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that. Why do you need to see Big Mike?"

"You'll find out soon enough. Is he in his office?"

"I think so. Let's head back there."

Chuck and Sarah walked to the back of the store to see Big Mike emerging from his office.

"I'll be back after lunch and I don't want anyone bothering me…" he stopped and froze at seeing Sarah. "Sarah Walker?"

"You must be Chuck's boss," Sarah said as she extended her hand.

Big Mike shook it. "Big…big fan of your show," he said, a bit flabbergasted. "Do you really do all your own stunts like the website says?"

"Most of them. At least the ones the insurance people will let me do."

She took Chuck's hand and pulled him closer to her. "I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to borrow Chuck for a while. There were a few things I had to go over with him. Sort of a Dating in Hollywood 101 course. But I brought a peace offering, if it's OK with you."

"What do you mean?"

The three of them turned to see Carina and Jimmy enter the store, followed by a couple of assistants carrying a table and several boxes.

"We put the word out on our Facebook page and Twitter that we were having a DVD signing party here at noon today for the Season 5 discs. I hope that's OK. There's a very large crowd lined up outside. I'm sure some of them will be happy to do some shopping while they're here."

Big Mike ran…as fast as someone of his size could run…and looked out the door. There were 300 people lined up along a set of velvet ropes he didn't even know were organized outside.

He turned back to Chuck and Sarah, who had followed him to the door. "No, not a problem at all," Big Mike said with a smile, the images of dollar bills and credit card swipes dancing in his head. "I'll just get the other Nerd Herders to man the registers. Go, Bartowski! Don't keep the lady waiting!"

"Thanks," he replied nervously. Sarah pulled him away and they headed toward the employees' breakroom where John Casey was waiting for them.

"That took you long enough," Casey said with not a little ire.

"We're lucky we got enough DVDs in time," Sarah replied. "The release isn't until next Tuesday. Besides, this will help for later."

"Later, what happens later?" Chuck asked.

"Nothing to worry about for now," Casey told him as he placed four pictures on the table in front of Chuck. "Take a look at these."

Chuck looked at the pictures. "Why are these people sleeping?"

"They're not, Chuck," Sarah replied. "They were killed and we'd like to know why."

"I have no idea!"

"Well, look again," Casey said.

"I would rather not. It's kind of creepy." Chuck stood up. "I mean, don't you have people who can…"

Chuck's eye caught a copy of the newspaper on top of the recycling bin. He had a flash, seeing images of paintings, an art auction, various weapons, and a name: La Ciudad.

"Chuck, what did you see?" Sarah asked, having learned quickly when Chuck has a flash.

"I don't…I'm…I'm not totally sure. A water lily painting, weapons, an art auction Friday night. Does the name La Ciudad mean anything to you?"

Sarah and Casey looked at each other and the same thought went through their minds. "Why?" Casey asked.

"Because I think he's going to be at that auction."

"I'll go tell Carina and Slade and then relay the information to Graham and Beckman," Casey said. "You're going to tell him about the other thing?"

"No problem, John," Sarah replied.

Chuck watched Casey quickly exit the breakroom. "OK, what is this thing both of you keep talking about?" he asked Sarah as he sat back down.

"General Beckman and Director Graham both agree this is an essential project. So much so, they're moving the production of the show from Toronto to here. They'll announce tomorrow that they signed a deal with one of the major studios to use their facilities."

"OK, but what does that have to do with me?"

"Until we can figure a way to get the Intersect out of you…and they're working on it as we speak…we need to have you in a location where we can keep an eye on you during the day just like the surveillance we have on your apartment complex watches you at night. We're going to hire you on the show as a technical consultant."

Chuck sat up straight in the chair. A smile came to his face. "You mean, like, I'd design anything showing on a computer for the show?"

Sarah nodded and smiled. "Also making sure any technical dialogue is accurate and teach us how to use computers on the show so we don't look silly. Although I think that's more for Carina and me since Casey deals with computers a lot doing surveillance and Jimmy actually has a degree in computer science from Illinois."

"Ellie is going to flip when she hears I got a job on the show."

Sarah watched Chuck smile at the thought. She had her fair share of assets to deal with in her career as an agent. Actually, she had several agents' fair share of assets to deal with because Graham considered her one of the best when it came to relating with others. Her extensive skill set, however, wouldn't be needed with this particular asset. Visiting him was quickly becoming the highlight of any day she worked.

"Really?"

Chuck nodded. "She's been wanting something like this to happen to me ever since I came home from Stanford."

"Then how about we do one better? I'll have our executive producer, R.D. McNeill, call you at home tonight, and you can let Ellie hear the job offer herself."

"Oh, she'd really go out of her mind."

"Of course, you'd have to tell your boss you won't be working here anymore."

Chuck froze at that thought. "I'd have to leave the Nerd Herd?"

"It's for your own protection. It would be much easier to keep an eye on you at the studio."

"No, I get that. It's just…"

"What's wrong?"

"I…I'm worried about leaving Anna, Jeff, and Lester…heck, most of the people who work here…high and dry. A lot of them come to me when they have problems. Big Mike doesn't like to be bothered, and they certainly wouldn't go within a mile of Harry Tang."

Sarah gave a little laugh. "That I can understand. And the loyalty you have to everyone here is commendable. But you have to realize people may come after you and wouldn't be afraid to use any of them against you. Look at what happened the other night. If you want us to keep you safe, you have to work with us to make sure we can."

"Could I…could I at least help them out when they need it? Like right now, there's a huge backlog of computers that have to be fixed, and if we can't get them fixed, then Harry Tang will start ruling this place with an iron fist. Actually, he already does, so I don't want him getting any worse."

A smile drew across her face. Ordinarily she could counter almost any argument an asset might have for wanting more room to breathe. But looking into those puppy-dog eyes of Chuck's, Sarah was beginning to find it difficult to turn him down for anything he asked. Mostly because he didn't really ask for anything for himself; it was always about his family, friends, or co-workers. This was as unselfish of an asset as she had ever encountered.

"We'll see what we can do to make that work," she said. "I can't make any promises, though. It'll be up to our supervisors. I admit it's only fair, though. We brought an avalanche of customers upon you without warning."

"Thanks," Chuck replied with a smile. It was a smile that put Sarah in a good mood, which was rare when she was doing actual spy work.

"We should go see how everyone is doing out there."

Chuck and Sarah walked out to the main floor. The line to get the signed DVDs was still very long. Not surprisingly, Carina was getting a lot of male fans and Jimmy was signing for the female fans. Unfortunately, only Anna seemed to be doing any work from the Herd, meaning the checkout lines were worse than at 1AM on Black Friday.

"And…now you know why they need my help."

Sarah laughed. "OK. Go give them a hand."

She turned and exited the store out of the back entrance so nobody would see her. If the crowd was this crazy for just Carina and Jimmy, there would be a riot if they spotted her.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
September 29, 2015  
5:00 PM PDT**_

The four gathered in Sarah's room to conference with Graham and General Beckman, both of whom had received Casey's report. Carina was exhausted from signing autographs, mainly because, like Casey, she wasn't much of a people person. She dreaded the trip to Comic Con every year. She preferred her social situations to be comprised of three things: a hot male, one-on-one, and horizontal. Jimmy wasn't much of a social creature either, but as he always told Sarah, doing this beat a holding cell any day of the week.

"If Chuck is right, this is a high priority," Beckman began. "La Ciudad is the most elusive and dangerous arms dealer in the world."

"Last anyone heard, MI-6 tried to get the drop on him, but he vanished," Graham added.

"Then we take him down at the art auction," Carina said. "We have a lot of experience in that."

"It's not that easy, Agent Miller. We have no idea what he looks like. No photographs. No one has ever seen La Ciudad who has lived to tell about it."

"So we'll bring the Intersect," Casey said, which made Sarah turn in surprise. "Everything we know about La Ciudad was fed into that computer."

"No way. It is too dangerous," Sarah countered. "He doesn't have any field experience or training."

"He'll be fine. It's an art auction."

"If all of us are there, Sarah, we should be able to keep him safe," Jimmy said. "They would have a hard time trying to capture Chuck if one of us is near him at all times. Where we go, the cameras go."

"Exactly," Casey said. "La Ciudad probably won't even be there."

"And if he is, is it worth the risk?" Sarah forcefully asked.

"All right, I've heard enough," Beckman said in an authoritative tone. "Put him in the field. We don't know what he's capable of until he's been tested."

Beckman hung up and the screen went black. Casey and Jimmy left the room to prepare. Carina took a long look at her friend.

"You don't want the best chance of catching La Ciudad at an art auction? Even with all of us there to keep an eye on him?"

"It's just…" Sarah paused for a moment to draw herself into full agent mode. "There's a lot in risking him. If something happens to him, all of the secrets of the government go with him."

"And I might have believed you if you didn't take so long to put your guard back up. Are you sure you shouldn't let me deal with Bartowski? Or Jimmy?"

"There won't be a problem," Sarah said with resolution. "Chuck is just an asset."

Carina headed for the door. She opened it and then turned back to Sarah.

"And Bryce was just a partner."

She walked out of the room. Sarah sank down on the bed, her thoughts going in a million directions, none of which were about the upcoming mission.

 _ **Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA  
September 29, 2015  
8:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked into his apartment…and almost closed the door on Morgan.

"Chuck…I…" Morgan slurred through his smashed face. Chuck opened the door so Morgan could enter.

"What are you doing here?" Chuck asked.

"I thought we had plans tonight. You left the Buy More and you said 'see you later, dude', so…if you don't want me here, that's fine. Just stop sending me mixed signals."

"Chuck?" Ellie called from the kitchen. "Did you apply for the Assistant Manager position?"

Chuck sighed, trying to put on a good act before the impending phone call. "That job is really not all it's cracked up to be. It'd only be a $2 an hour raise and it doesn't even get me my own parking spot. I ought to do better."

Ellie came out from the kitchen with a pan of cupcakes she was working on. "Does that mean you're actually giving consideration to leaving the Buy More?"

"A real profession?" Morgan did not like where this was going. "I'm going to need some clarification on that."

"He went to Stanford, Morgan."

"And was unceremoniously expelled senior year. Sorry to bring that up, buddy. But I think we need to be realistic about our goals here."

Ellie scoffed. "His goals or your goals?"

Morgan didn't slow down. "Great question, and I think we need to hammer out a plan for Chuck. Where do we see him in five years? Ten years?"

"We?"

"Fine, then just you and I. Look, it is way too scary out there. Chuck can't leave the Buy More. We're still finding ourselves."

"No offense, Morgan, but I think my brother has quite a few years finding himself, and he's definitely proven his place in life is not at the Buy More."

"You don't understand. He is a fragile little gelding. He's still trying to find his legs. The real world will crush him!"

Ellie gave him a look. "Do you know what a gelding is?"

Chuck was never more grateful his phone rang. "Hello?"

"Chuck, this is R.D. McNeill, but you can call me Rob. This is the phone call you wanted. Is your sister nearby?"

"She's right here," Chuck replied.

"OK, then. Put me on speaker."

"Who is that, Chuck?" Ellie asked. "And why do I need to hear it?"

"The executive producer of Sarah's show stopped by the Buy More during the DVD signing today. He said he'd call me tonight about something important."

Chuck put his phone on speaker. "Go ahead, Rob."

"It's good to hear from you again, Chuck," Rob said so Ellie and Morgan heard as well. "I talked to the studio and they were very impressed with what I told them about your technical knowledge. They want to offer you a job as a technical consultant for the upcoming season of _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_."

Ellie's eyes went wide and she clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming for joy. Morgan stared at the phone in shock.

"Rob, that's…that's an amazing offer," Chuck said. "Could I have some time to think about it?"

"Already trying to negotiate a raise?" Rob gave a laugh. "Can't blame you. Besides, that's the first rule of business: never take the first offer."

"I just need to talk to a few people first. Family and all that."

"Not a problem. Get back to me tomorrow. I'm hoping your answer is yes."

"Thanks, Rob. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Good night, Chuck." Rob hung up.

Ellie removed her hand from her mouth. "You were offered a job on Sarah's show?"

"I was helping people at the Nerd Herd desk when he stopped by to check on the DVD release party. We talked for a little bit, and then he told me the show was moving here. They'd have to hire a few people, and he thought I would be a good fit."

"That is amazing! So, what would you do as a technical consultant? Do you design anything the show would have on a computer?"

"Yes, and make sure the dialogue had the correct computer terminology and teach the actors if they need to look like they know what they're doing on a computer."

"Oh, please tell me it pays more."

"They didn't tell me a specific number, but he assured me I'd be paid way more than I make at the Buy More, plus health insurance. I still don't get my own parking space, though."

"Chuck, that is so, SO epic!" Morgan beamed. "But, wait. Does that mean you're leaving the Buy More?"

"I am so hoping the answer is yes," Ellie practically begged.

"I don't really know. I don't want to tell Big Mike that I'm quitting yet because I don't know how many hours this job will take each week."

"But at least you'll consider it? Working on a TV show has to look better on your résumé than Nerd Herd Supervisor."

"Yes, of course."

"That's all I need to hear," Ellie said as she walked over to Chuck and gave him a hug. "Congratulations."

"Thanks, sis. I'm going to lay down for a while."

Chuck went to his bedroom…and was startled by Casey at his window.

"Congratulations, Bartowski. You just got your first mission. Friday night."

"A…a mission? I'm actually going to be a spy?"

"Hope you're ready for the real world." Casey started to walk away.

"Wait, wait. What am I supposed to wear? Is this a sneakers event or should I wear regular shoes?"

"We'll get you a tux."

"OK, what about hand-to-hand combat? I mean, if it comes down to me and La Ciudad in some fisticuffs, is there like a 20-minute tutorial you can take me through?"

"Don't worry, you're going to be fine. Nothing will happen to you. Assuming you know how to tango."

Chuck blinked in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Oh, I don't joke about your life." Casey walked away.

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
September 30, 2015  
12:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck watched Devon enter the store. He knew Ellie and Awesome had a rare day off together, so he wasn't entirely surprised to see him. Chuck had already agreed to clear out of the apartment for the night. In fact, he shifted his hours so he would close the store, and then Sarah would come by to get some frozen yogurt and talk about Friday night.

"Chuck, did you find those DVDs?" Devon asked.

"Done and paid for," Chuck replied, handing Devon copies of _Casablanca_ and _The Princess Bride_. "Devon, have you ever…" Chuck stopped, too embarrassed to ask.

"What's wrong, bro?"

"I'm going on a date with Sarah Friday night, and…have you ever tangoed?"

"Did a semester in Buenos Aires. Knowing the tango got the señoritas _muy caliente_."

"Yeah, that crosses a line of some sorts here. But is there a way you can show me a few moves?"

"Not a problem. We'll use the breakroom. Need a place with lots of open floor."

Chuck and Devon walked to the back of the store, Devon having grabbed a CD on the way there. "Already regretting this," Chuck said.

They entered the breakroom. "What is going on?" Harry Tang asked with considerable venom. "And why are you bringing customers back here?"

"This is my sister's boyfriend, I'm on my lunch break, and I requested we go over something."

Tang relaxed slightly…very slightly. And only because he couldn't throw the book at Chuck over this. "Then proceed."

"I'd kind of like some privacy if that's OK…"

Devon placed the CD in the breakroom's player, and a song blasted out of it. He grabbed Chuck, placed Chuck's hand on his shoulder, and placed his own hand on Chuck's hip.

"This new job better pay a LOT," Chuck muttered to himself as Devon obliviously began to tango with him, not even caring if Harry Tang watched.

 _ **Orange Orange - Burbank, CA  
September 30, 2015  
9:30 PM PDT**_

"The idea with a cover is to keep it simple while not revealing true personal detail. And remember, you'll be out in public a lot pretending to be my new boyfriend, so you have to remember all the little facts about the cover. Let's start with an easy one. What is your name?"

Chuck smiled with a bit of nervousness behind it. How Sarah and her team managed to do things like this on a daily basis was still beyond his comprehension. But they had to be ready for Friday night. He knew he'd be in front of the media. But at least he learned how to tango, like Casey wanted.

"How about Charles Carmichael? Simple, dignified…"

"Easy to remember and not far off from..."

"Graduated with honors from Stanford. Owns a small but highly profitable software company who is doing his 'girlfriend' a favor by helping her out on her show. Thinking about sailing in the America's Cup..."

"I get the feeling you've done this before."

"Let's just say Mr. Carmichael and I share a…small kinship."

"How's that?"

The playful look on Chuck's face disappeared. "When I entered Stanford, it's kind of how I envisioned myself being by now. Except for the sailing; I don't know where that came from. But it's where most of my class is these days."

"So what happened?"

"I took a little detour when my good friend, Bryce Larkin, discovered some stolen tests under my bed and was kind enough to alert the administration."

Sarah looked at him for a moment. "Did you steal the tests?"

Chuck got a little annoyed. "I thought it was kind of implied that I'm a decent person."

"Well, we all make mistakes."

He exhaled in frustration. "And I've made plenty. That just wasn't one of them." He took a small spoonful from his frozen yogurt, which Sarah took the occasional sample from. "But then Bryce sent me a whole database of government secrets that are now locked in my brain, keeping me in a constant state of fear, danger, and anxiety so…I'd say we're even."

Sarah took his hand. "Don't worry about Friday night. All of us will be there to help. You have nothing to be nervous about."

"Me, nervous? Nah."

"Your hand is a little moist."

"It does that when I'm freaking out."

Sarah laughed and squeezed his folded hands with both of hers. Chuck didn't know how Friday night would go, but he certainly couldn't complain about getting a frozen yogurt with Jen Burton.

 _ **Wilshire Grand Hotel - Los Angeles, CA  
October 2, 2015  
7:45 PM PDT**_

Chuck, Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy walked up the stairs to the main ballroom. Sarah felt a bit of relief, given the majority of people here were well out of the show's demographic, so there wouldn't be a huge problem with the crowd. Still, they didn't want to take a chance.

"Are you OK, Chuck?" Sarah asked.

"Fine. I'm all set. I even learned how to tango. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but…"

"Why would you need to know how to tango?"

"Casey told me the other night…"

Carina and Jimmy started laughing and Sarah couldn't help but smile. "Owned by The Case," Jimmy said. "He doesn't pull it out often, but when he does, it's like a sledgehammer to the pills."

Chuck rolled his eyes in aggravation. "Great. That's lovely. Spy humor, I like that."

"Don't worry about it," Sarah told Chuck, giving his hand a squeeze before turning to Carina and Jimmy. "Are you two good on recon?"

"We'll head in and try to draw some people away," Carina said as she hung onto Jimmy's arm. "Hopefully that will give Chuck some room to do his thing."

"Thanks," Sarah replied as Carina and Jimmy went ahead. Chuck grabbed a _hors d'oveurs_ from a passing waiter.

"Oh, nice," Sarah said, looking at his shirt.

Chuck exhaled in frustration. "I've been a spy all of five seconds and I already have soy sauce on my shirt."

"Go and wash it off. And Chuck? Stop saying that you're a spy."

He glanced around nervously before looking again at Sarah. "Right. Of course."

He went down the stairs to the men's washroom.

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
October 2, 2015  
8:00 PM PDT**_

"Wait, where are you guys going?"

Morgan couldn't believe it. Actually, he could believe Harry Tang hoarding some of the old computers that needed repairing by tomorrow and dumping them in the Nerd Herd's lap at closing time. But Anna, Jeff, and Lester didn't appear to have much interest in finishing.

"Sorry, bro. I've got my bar mitzvah lesson," Lester replied.

"Internet poker," Anna said.

"I'm off by 8 and hammered by 8:05," Jeff said, sounding like he was already hammered.

"Fine! We don't come through, and Big Mike is going to let Harry Tang run rampant through your little group. And you know what that means? No more two-hour lunch breaks! No more X-Box tournaments! And no more porn. Yeah, total work hell. We owe it to Chuck. Because tonight, he is going to get to sleep with one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. Can any of you say you've done that?"

Anna defiantly raised her hand. "Really?" Morgan and Lester asked. "That's interesting."

"Never mind," she spat out.

"OK, we'll do it. But your boy better close the deal," Jeff said.

The four walked back to the cage.

 _ **Wilshire Grand Hotel - Los Angeles, CA  
October 2, 2015  
7:55 PM PDT**_

"Idiot."

Chuck washed the soy sauce on his shirt with a wet paper towel, still not believing he screwed up like that when they barely got into the Wilshire Grand. His new career was off to a stellar beginning.

Until he flashed on the man standing at the sink next to him. He saw the same painting he saw earlier, the folder on La Ciudad, and a picture of the man shooting someone in the back.

Unfortunately, Chuck's nervous expression caught the man's attention. "Do we know each other?" the man asked in a British accent.

"No. No, not that I know of," Chuck replied. "Sorry."

He departed the restroom and walked quickly back up the stairs to where Sarah was waiting for him.

"It's him."

"Who?" Sarah asked.

Chuck looked towards the bathroom, where the man he flashed on just exited. "La Ciudad," he said fearfully.

Sarah looked around quickly. "Everybody, on your toes," she said over everyone's earpiece. "Chuck ID'ed La Ciudad. I'm going in for a closer look."

Sarah took him upstairs. "OK, if I've already have identified the perp, as it were, what are we still doing here?" Chuck asked. "You know, mission accomplished. Time to go."

Sarah looked around to see Carina and Jimmy keeping a sharp eye out. "Chuck, go wait at the bar."

Sarah walked away to get a closer look at La Ciudad while Chuck backed up a few steps to where the bar was. "Bartender, I'd like a martini, shaken AND stirred…"

He turned around to find Casey there…and in disguise. It was all Chuck could do to not laugh hysterically.

"So you don't get to be on a date?"

"I blend in where I can," he quietly growled as he poured Chuck a 7-Up. "Want a cherry with that?"

"Blend in?" Chuck was incredulous. Casey's disguise was borderline insane. "So, how did it feel being Patrick Stewart's stuntman on the _X-Men_ films and _Star Trek_?"

"Ever heard of a Colombian necktie?"

The smile on Chuck's face disappeared. "No…and I probably don't want to know?"

"Not even a little."

Chuck turned back to the crowd to see Sarah talking with La Ciudad. She seemed to be getting along with him, although Chuck was relieved Carina and Jimmy were keeping an eye open for trouble. Sarah began to walk forward, and La Ciudad signaled someone ahead of them. That person put a gun to Sarah's back as she passed by. That got Carina and Jimmy moving towards them. Unfortunately, they had a group of four following them.

Casey jumped over the bar and began to walk in the same direction. "You stay," he ordered Chuck.

"Stay?" Chuck said in frustration. "Stay…like a dog."

La Ciudad and his partners led Sarah to the roof. Carina and Jimmy followed behind a few feet, as did the four agents following them. Casey brought up the rear.

~/^\~

Chuck grew tired of sitting at the bar and went to look at one of the paintings. The very same painting he saw in prior flashes, only now a new flash added a metal vial marked with a radiation warning tag. He looked closely at the frame.

"Beautiful painting," a woman standing next to him said.

"Yeah, beautiful. Painting, yeah. It definitely has a quality about it. Very Bob Rossian in its influence."

"Who?"

"Bob Ross? The guy who used to do paintings on PBS? With the afro and the soothing…you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"No, sorry."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time."

"I'm Malena," the woman said, extending her hand.

"I'm Chuck…Charles," Chuck said as he shook her hand. "Charles Carmichael."

"So you don't like the painting?"

"No, it's fine. I'm just more interested in the frame."

Chuck's phone began to ring. He saw Morgan's name on the Caller ID and hit Ignore. "Sorry, so sorry about this. Work never leaves me alone. I'm in the software game."

"So you were saying about the frame?"

"Nothing. It really doesn't matter." He grabbed two flutes of champagne from a passing server and handed one to Malena. "Cheers."

"Cheers," she replied and clinked glasses with him. The band began to play a tango.

"Mmmm, I love a tango," Malena said.

"Oh, yeah. Who doesn't?"

"Do you?" she looked at him with considerable interest.

"Do I, do I want to…" Chuck looked back towards the auction but didn't see anyone on Sarah's team nearby. He figured they were trying to grab La Ciudad. "You know what? What the hell."

Chuck and Malena put down their champagne flutes and went to the dance floor. They held hands, Malena put her other hand on Chuck's shoulder, and he put his other hand on Malena's shoulder.

"Mr. Carmichael?"

"Please, Chuck."

"Chuck…I think your hand is supposed to be on my hip."

Chuck looked back and forth nervously. "Uh, right. Apparently I learned the girls' part of this dance. Would you mind leading?"

"Not at all," Malena said with a smile.

~/^\~

"Whom do you work for? And don't try to tell me it's for that bloody show."

Sarah was being held by two of La Ciudad's men on the rooftop.

"Why are you here? And don't lie to us; you'll only make this much more painful."

Sarah looked towards the door, which was opened a crack. She saw Jimmy count down from three on his fingers. She nodded.

The door burst open and Sarah ducked to the ground, spinning on her leg to trip La Ciudad as Jimmy fired away with both guns, nailing the two men who were holding Sarah in their shoulders. Carina charged onto the roof to fire at the man behind La Ciudad. Two more enemy agents came out of the door. Jimmy dropped and rolled, kicking the door closed on the third man. Sarah landed a spinning kick on one of the men who made it through the door while Carina sent a Superman punch into the other. Jimmy tossed Sarah her gun, which she caught and pointed it at La Ciudad.

The team heard a loud grunt behind the door, and Casey emerged dragging the agent he knocked out and the one Jimmy nailed with the door.

"Federal agents, nobody move!" Sarah shouted.

"We're international agents. MI-6," the man Chuck thought was La Ciudad answered.

"Drop the guns," Carina said as she pointed her gun at one of the downed men and Jimmy covered two others with his guns.

"We're with the British Secret Service."

"Lower your weapons!" Sarah said, her gun still trained on him.

"OK, everybody take a deep breath. I'm putting down my gun and getting out my identification."

"Uh-uh," Jimmy said quickly, turning his gun to the agent as well. "Left hand, two fingers only."

The MI-6 agent did as Jimmy commanded, holding his wallet in the air. Jimmy kept one gun aimed at the man's head while he checked the ID. He then put the gun away. "He's legit," Jimmy said.

"And this must be Graham's famous TV spy team."

"You know about us?" Carina asked.

"You think the show cover was his idea? Half the Doctor Who's were secret agents."

"What are you doing here?" Casey demanded.

"Probably the same thing you're doing. We've been pursuing an arms dealer across five countries."

"Let me guess. La Ciudad?"

"That's right. MI-6 intercepted a painting with plutonium in the frame. Rather than announcing the bust, we removed the plutonium and kept the auction, hoping we could lure Ciudad."

Sarah stood. "But if you're not La Ciudad, then where is he?"

~/^\~

Chuck and Malena strutted around on the dance floor, Chuck being quite intimidated by not only letting Malena lead a tango, but she was so good at it. He did his best to keep up, but every hair on him was standing on end.

She ended it by spinning him to her and dipping him. He tried to catch his breath. It was then he caught a scar on Malena's neck. He had yet another flash, only this time he saw the La Ciudad file, a cache of weapons, and Malena's neck being slashed in that very spot with a machete.

The old British guy wasn't La Ciudad; she was. Chuck gulped nervously. "Help," he said quietly.

Malena pulled Chuck back to his feet. "So what line of work are you in, Malena?"

"Why are you so interested, Mr. Carmichael?" Malena asked.

"No reason, just making conversation."

A concierge walked up to them holding a phone. "Excuse me, sir. Are you Chuck Bartowski?"

"Who, me? No, no, no. I'm Carmichael."

"Um, that's him!" Morgan's voice could be heard over the phone. "That's my friend. I can hear his voice! HEY CHUCK!"

"Are you sure you're not Mr. Bartowski? Your friend insists," the concierge said.

"No, no, I insist." Chuck was getting more and more scared. "I never heard that name in my life."

"Chuck, you gotta help me!" Morgan cried. "I'm locked in the cage with a bunch of old computers, and you know how I feel about those!"

"I gotta go," Chuck said and turned around…only to be stopped by one of La Ciudad's very imposing bodyguards. A second one cocked his gun and put it in Chuck's back.

"Let's head up to my room, Mr. Carmichael," La Ciudad said. "And let's find out who you really are."

~/^\~

Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy rushed downstairs to the auction. Chuck was nowhere to be found.

"If we get out of this, you three are in for the chewing out of your lives," Sarah said angrily.

"How were any of us to know the intel would be wrong?" Casey said, not entirely happy that Sarah seemed to be taking this personally.

"We better find him fast," Carina said.

"Already on it," Jimmy said as he pulled out his mobile phone. "Good thing Case gave him that Rolex with a GPS tracker in it." Jimmy got the signal on his phone. "18th floor, west side of the building."

"Let's go," Sarah said, and the team took off.

~/^\~

"Let's start with an easy one. What's your real name?"

Chuck was tied to a chair in La Ciudad's hotel suite. He couldn't stop shaking, particularly when he glanced over at the rather impressive set of knives and other tools laid out on the sofa.

"Carmichael. Charles Carmichael." Malena picked up a knife and threw it at Chuck. It embedded itself in the chair between Chuck's legs and barely an inch from his groin. "Chuck Bartowski!"

"That wasn't so hard," she replied. Chuck wasn't even sure why he bothered to lie. She had his wallet and probably knew that answer already. "Now…before you answer my next question, I want you to think long and hard about my options here. There's the old favorite: yank out a tooth. Too noisy. Cut off a toe? Too messy."

"Far too messy," Chuck blurted out.

"Or we could just chuck you off the balcony…Chuck. Probably land face first. Teeth go through the back of your head. Not a good way to go. So, here's my question. Who do you work for?"

"No one!" Two of La Ciudad's goons picked up Chuck's chair and started to carry him to the balcony. "I fix computers for a living, OK? I snuck into the party under a fake name to impress a girl! I swear! Please, please, down! Put chair down!"

"Goodbye, Chuck."

"No, no, no! It's a setup!"

"What is?" La Ciudad asked.

"The painting? The painting!" La Ciudad's men turned the chair around to face her. "The painting, I think the painting might be a fake or something."

"Why?"

"If you put me down, I'll tell you." La Ciudad nodded, and her men put the chair down. "I saw a photo of the painting in the _L.A. Times_ , but it had a different frame. So I'm assuming maybe someone swapped it out, I don't know. But if I were you, I would not buy that painting."

"A fake painting? And you had no intention of bidding on it?"

"No, not unless they were selling it for $25 because that's about all I have in my decorating budget."

"Fine, then." La Ciudad said. She then cocked her gun and aimed it at Chuck's head. "Tell me how to fix a computer, Chuck."

The team reached the 18th floor. They moved down the hall with weapons drawn as Jimmy confirmed the location of Chuck's watch on his smartphone. They looked around the corner to see a room with two guards in front of it.

"My first inclination would be your bus speed is not up to snuff with your video card. I assume we're talking about a PC?"

"That's enough, Mr. Bartowski," La Ciudad said, already weary of Chuck's technical jargon. "I believe you. But the problem is, you've seen my face, so I have to kill you."

Chuck's eyes widened. "Have to? No, no you don't have to. I disagree. I disagree vehemently. I won't say a thing, I swear."

La Ciudad put a silencer on her gun. "Don't worry, it'll be fast. Goodbye, Mr. Bartowski. I enjoyed our tango."

Sarah and Jimmy walked down the hall hand-in-hand as they approached the two guards, lost in a seemingly romantic conversation. They went to the door opposite of La Ciudad's suite, and Sarah sent a kick into the gut of the first guard while Jimmy head-butted the other guard. Sarah sent the first guard down with a punch as Jimmy gave a vertical kick to the second man to take him out.

La Ciudad heard the commotion outside and turned around, opening fire at the door. Sarah stepped away from the door and Jimmy dropped to the ground. Casey and Carina came up with guns at the ready as La Ciudad's guards also opened fire with automatic weapons. The door and surrounding walls were riddled with bullets.

"CHUCK, GET DOWN!" Sarah shouted as the four got ready to charge.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH," Chuck screamed as he tipped his chair back and forth to fall to the ground. La Ciudad and her guards stopped to reload.

"Now," Sarah commanded.

Jimmy pushed up from the ground and mule-kicked the door open. Casey and Carina went in guns blazing. One of the guards was shot dead. The other one jumped off of the balcony with La Ciudad right behind him. Jimmy ran in and pulled a hook from his belt. He threw it at the balcony railing and jumped off, chasing after La Ciudad and her bodyguard.

Sarah rushed in and went straight to Chuck. "Chuck, Chuck, are you OK?"

"OK? OK?" Chuck was in full freak-out mode. "Two more seconds and I would have been dead! They were going to throw me off the balcony!"

"I'll locate Jimmy," Carina said as she sprinted out of the room.

"Did you tell them you work for us?" Casey asked.

"Of course not! Where the hell were you guys?"

"You're still alive. I'd consider myself lucky."

La Ciudad and her bodyguard ran down the hall one floor below her suite and made it around the corner to the elevator. Jimmy sprinted down the hallway and was about to turn the same corner, only to get pistol-whipped by La Ciudad's bodyguard. He fell to the ground in a daze. La Ciudad aimed her gun at Jimmy's head.

She then had to dive to the floor as Carina shot at her from the other end of the hall. La Ciudad thought the better of it and got in the elevator. The doors closed just as Carina got to Jimmy, who slowly sat up, the room still spinning around.

"Well, this has been a fun day," he muttered in disgust.

La Ciudad and her bodyguard bounded down the stairs and headed to the exit of the Wilshire Grand. They considered themselves lucky to have escaped.

"We have to get you out of the country," her bodyguard said.

"First, we take these people out," she replied and pulled out Chuck's Buy More ID. "Starting with him!"

 _ **Unknown Location - Los Angeles, CA  
October 7, 2015  
9:00 PM PDT**_

A man stood in a darkened room with a group of five people sitting at a table and looking at him. He had this working theory for some time, ever since encountering Bryce Larkin. He knew Bryce was a spy, but he originally thought only Bryce was using the TV show as a cover. What happened two weeks ago told a different story. It appeared the entire cast was in on it, even Bryce's replacement.

"There is no doubt in my mind this man is the one Bryce sent the data to. And those four people from the TV show are all part of the effort to protect him. Bryce wasn't working alone. He never was."

"This Chuck Bartowski must be captured," one of the five said. "Your assignment remains the same."

The man nodded. "The blonde woman is clearly the leader of the group. The others take their cues from her."

"Then eliminating her would give us a significant advantage."

"Exactly what I was thinking," the man said as he scratched an itch near the long scar on his face. "Consider her dead."


	5. Occupational Hazards

_Hello everybody. Again, sorry it took me so long to get this out. I had intended to have this done several days ago. Unfortunately, 2015 went from bad to much, much worse around here. And it wasn't even a hospital visit this time. So if I am lax in sending you a thank you email for giving a review, I do apologize. I'm afraid my mind is elsewhere right now._

 _I wanted to get this in just to get my mind off of what's been going on here. Hopefully the chapter works out for you. BTW, for you Jimmy Slade haters out there, I have two words to say: you're welcome._

 _Anyway, please ignore everything I just said and enjoy the chapter. As always in this story, the parts that are from the show are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And sending me a review...good or bad...will make this week go better. Thanks._

* * *

 _ **Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA  
October 2, 2015  
11:30 PM PDT**_

Chuck entered his apartment having finally calmed down from the evening's insanity. The look on Sarah's face right before he left was still burned into his mind. She tried to keep it expressionless, but even Chuck could tell she was fuming at the danger he was put in and she looked ready to take it out on Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. He hung his head; it wasn't their fault he identified the wrong person as La Ciudad. He felt like an idiot. If Ciudad was a guy, wouldn't he have been _**El**_ Ciudad? Clearly the four years of Spanish he took in high school were a waste of time. And despite everything that happened, they still managed to rescue him. Casey was right; he got lucky. Lucky in the sense of having some very talented people watching his back.

He closed the door and found Ellie sleeping on the couch. He pulled the blanket on the couch over her, but that stirred her awake.

"Hey, how was the big date?" she asked him.

"Good," he replied with little enthusiasm. "Good, great, fine. I'm going to go to bed. I love you…"

"What? No, no, no, no," Ellie said as she grabbed Chuck's arm. "Is that all I get?" She pulled him back to the couch. "Come on, sit down. I want to know…you know…do you like this girl?"

"It's, you know, it's complicated."

"Well, explain it to me slowly. I'll catch up."

Chuck gave a long exhale. Everything that happened tonight, and he couldn't tell Ellie one bit of it. "She's a…beautiful girl."

"Yes, the entire viewing public would agree. Go on."

"And she's very…agile."

"Not sure what that has to do with your date, but I know these things, Chuck. I've seen her on the show."

"Honestly, I think she's too exhausting for me."

Ellie stared at him in confusion. "What happened? Did you guys tango?"

"Oh yeah, yeah. We tangoed. In fact, we tangoed quite a bit, but Awesome taught me the woman's part of the tango, so it was a little difficult as one might expect."

Seemingly timed to the second, Devon entered in only his boxers and sat next to Ellie. "What's up, bro? Did you do the famous dip?"

"Yeah, actually I was on the receiving end of that dip."

Devon gave him a weird look. "You did tango with a woman, right?"

Chuck rolled his eyes in frustration. "And on that note…" He tried to get up from the couch

"No, no, no, no, no," Ellie interrupted, holding Chuck's arm to keep him on the couch. "You're not getting off that easy. Why won't you talk to me?"

"It's…" Chuck couldn't believe he had to lie to his own sister, the woman who all but raised him after their mother left and their father became obsessed with his work and gave up his parental responsibilities. "It's complicated, OK? Just let it go."

Ellie exhaled in frustration. "Fine. You don't want to talk to me, I suggest you find someone to talk to, like your idiot friend. He's called about 75 times. He locked himself in a storage cage. Whatever that means."

"Oh, no," Chuck said. "That's why he was calling me."

"You ignored a call from Morgan?" Ellie couldn't believe it. "This must have been quite a date you were on. And by the way…Charles Carmichael?"

"What are you talking about?" Chuck asked.

"You were on the news tonight. They showed you in front of the Wilshire Grand with Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy. Why are you using that fake name you created?"

Chuck shook his head and smiled. "It was Sarah's idea. At least now you won't have _TMZ_ and _Inside Edition_ camped outside of the apartment wondering who I am, right?"

"They better not," Ellie said, her voice taking on the hardened edge she reserved for when Awesome and she didn't see eye-to-eye on things.

"I…better let Morgan out," Chuck said. He exited the apartment.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
October 3, 2015  
12:00 AM PDT**_

"You were right, Casey. We were lucky tonight. We were lucky our incompetence didn't get Chuck killed!"

Sarah was not in a good mood by any stretch of the imagination. Their work tonight almost cost Chuck his life. It was rare she ever got mad at her partners like this, but she was not willing to accept what happened tonight as simple bad luck.

"Bartowski got the wrong person, Walker," Casey replied. "It was a domino effect. You'd be dead right now if you tried to lone wolf it. La Ciudad is probably trying to get the hell out of the country as we speak. We did well all things considered."

"Casey's right," Carina said. "We have a blood sample, fingerprints from all of her weapons and a picture of her. We already have a team ready to intercept her in Central America. All things no agency in the entire world had before tonight."

"And we let her get away," Sarah countered as she glared at Jimmy.

"Yeah, I really need to learn how to not lose consciousness after being clocked in the head by a Jericho 941-R," he grumbled as he held an ice pack to his face, still in pain from being nailed by La Ciudad's bodyguard.

"The bottom line is, we failed tonight. We let La Ciudad get away and put Chuck in danger. We better fix this situation quickly. We're supposed to be counting on him for intel, not rescuing him every five minutes."

Both Casey and Carina glared at her for a moment before exiting the room. Jimmy got up slowly and headed for the door.

He then turned back. "You're getting too close. You know that, right?"

Sarah turned to face Jimmy, her eyes practically shooting daggers at him. "I'm doing my job as a team leader."

"Is that why you never used the word 'asset' just now? You kept referring to him as Chuck? You've never done that with any asset before. And you sure as hell have never gotten this mad at us even when we really did screw up. He's gotten into your head and you're letting it affect your judgement. It wouldn't be the first time."

"How would you know that?"

"If that didn't happen with Bryce, I wouldn't even be here. Graham was worried about you after he disappeared. He was afraid you would burn yourself out like you almost did when you first started."

Sarah's mouth dropped open in surprise. "He told you all of that?"

Jimmy nodded. "There are at least a dozen agents who would have done a much better job in this show cover than me. But he put me in for one simple reason: I wasn't Bryce. He figured after what happened to you with Bryce that you needed someone you'd be able to get along with without things getting complicated. And he was right."

Sarah looked at Jimmy for a moment. "Is that why you ran away from me on the beach after I kissed you?"

"No. Graham told me all of this after our dates but before you talked to me. I was freaking out on the beach because Sarah Walker wanted to sleep with me and I wasn't prepared for it. It was like being asked to base jump off the Freedom Tower when you're afraid of heights."

She shook her head and smiled. "To this day, I still find it hard to believe you've had so little experience with the opposite sex. Even after reading your file."

Jimmy shrugged. "I really don't worry about it that much. If it happens, it happens. And it's the same for you. There's nothing wrong with liking Chuck. You just can't let it affect your job like it did tonight when you chewed us out for no good reason. Give yourself some distance for now. Once this is over, when we find out who's after him and he gets the Intersect out of his head, who knows? Just don't make things more complicated. You're not the only one whom it would affect."

Jimmy rose and headed for the door. "Graham was right twice," Sarah said.

He turned back to her. "What do you mean?"

"Putting you on my team was as much for you as it was for me. He may have been worried about me burning out again, but he was concerned you had a death wish. Given what I know of your past now, I can understand why. He needed someone who cared about you as much as what you could do. He wants you around because of your talent, but I need you around because you're a good person that I have no problem trusting with my life. And other agents that could have done a better job than you? No one will ever convince me of that."

Jimmy looked down at the ground momentarily before turning back to Sarah with that shy smile he had. "I guess it worked." He opened the door. "Good night."

Sarah looked at the door as she reviewed everything that had happened tonight. Casey and Carina were right that Chuck identified the wrong person and yet still came closer to catching La Ciudad than anyone ever had. And Jimmy was right that she had to put some distance between Chuck and her.

But she couldn't get past how close they came to losing him tonight.

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
October 3, 2015  
12:15 AM PDT**_

Morgan understood what Andy Dufresne felt in _The Shawshank Redemption_. He could even hear that Italian lady singing that beautiful opera from Act III of _Le Nozze di Figaro_. Of course, he had only been locked up for four hours as opposed to twenty years. Still, he yearned to be free. He even started hallucinating that he smelled a delicious slice of pizza.

Given that he fell asleep on the cage floor and Chuck was holding a pizza slice under his nose, it wasn't exactly a hallucination. Morgan was startled awake.

"Dude, you have no idea the hell I've been through," Morgan said in relief as he hugged Chuck.

"OK, OK, OK. Settle down, settle down, settle down," Chuck replied as he handed Morgan the slice. "It's all good. Tell me what happened."

"Oh, God. What happened? Tang showed up and dropped all these off," Morgan explained as he showed Chuck all of the computers Harry Tang intentionally hid. "I guess he was stashing them, you know? So…alright. Let's do this."

Chuck looked at him in surprise. "What are you talking about? Morgan, you don't know how to fix a computer."

"Moral support. Never…never leave your wingman, OK? Something your team could learn a little something about."

"Look it's OK, man. Go get some sleep, OK?"

"Are you sure? 'Cause you say the word and we go down together."

"No, I appreciate that. But I think it'll be nice to do something I'm good at. So, I'll see you."

"Fantastic, I'll see you later. Good night."

Morgan shook his hand and patted him on the shoulder before taking his pizza slice and leaving the store. Chuck exhaled slowly and took a quick look at the computers that still needed to be fixed. He stretched his neck and started to take apart the first PC.

Eight hours later, Big Mike walked back to the cage holding a doughnut and his morning coffee. "You finished, Bartowski?" he asked.

Chuck slammed the case to the operating system CD he had been using to re-initialize the PCs. "Mission accomplished."

"Whoah! Two days was meant as an incentive. I didn't think you'd really do it. I'm impressed, and I'm not a man easily impressed. Gonna be sorry to not see you here every day."

"Well, I think you should know I only fixed the last few. My team did most of the work. They deserve the credit, and you're only as good as your team, so…"

"First rule of management: ALWAYS take credit," Big Mike replied, taking a look at all of the PCs the Nerd Herders fixed. "Hope we can sell all this crap."

Harry Tang walked in with several aluminum beer cans. "Sir, there's been a major infraction: drinking alcoholic beverages on the property."

"Nothing wrong with a man wetting his whistle every once in a while," Big Mike replied, clearly as annoyed with Harry's attitude as everyone else was. He wanted to make Chuck the Assistant Manager so badly, but he couldn't compete against a salary five times as high and a smoking hot blonde actress as a girlfriend.

"Just keep it out of the store," he told Chuck, who agreed.

Big Mike left and Tang looked at Chuck like he just scraped him off the bottom of his shoe. "You look like a waiter," Tang yapped as he threw the cans on the floor. "Kiss ass."

Chuck stood up. "Well, as fun as it is to talk to you, Harry, I have to get to my new job. Which by the way, pays more in one year than you can make in five. I'm going to go be with my new girlfriend while you deal with an entire store where nobody has an ounce of respect for you."

Chuck started to walk out of the cage. "Good luck, Captain Bligh," he said, bumping Tang with his shoulder on the way out, like Tang had done with him so many times in the past.

 _ **O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA  
October 9, 2015  
1:30 PM PDT**_

Jen Burton and Jill Garrett made it to the large steel door. Jill had a bag of tricks with her thanks to Duke Forrester, who was an expert in getting into any enemy stronghold. But they needed him outside taking out the rest of The Frenchman's lackeys, giving them the chance to rescue the captured Lance McCall.

"Hurry, Jill," Jen Burton said as Jill removed the outer casing of the electronic lock and attached alligator clips to the correct wires inside. "We have less than four minutes to inject Lance with the antidote or he'll die."

"I'm working on it as fast as I can," she replied. "Serves the bastard right for locking us out of that building to prevent us from being captured as well."

"Fine. If he lives, then you can kill him."

"Almost have it," Jill said. The device she attached to the keypad displayed the correct combination, which she quickly punched in. "Let's go."

Jen threw the door open and the two charged in. Four guards came charging at them. Jen spun and took out the first one with a back kick while Jill threw a chop at the throat of the second guard and then nailing him between the shoulder blades to render him unconscious. The third guard charged them. Jen and Jill grabbed each other's arms and clotheslined him. The final guard tried to pull out his gun, but Jen knocked it away with a well-placed kick while Jill landed a hard jab on the man to knock him out.

They ran towards the other end of the room where The Frenchman stood with Lance tied up and unconscious next to him. An IV was attached to Lance's arm, and The Frenchman held a remote in his hand.

"Don't come any closer or I'll push this button and send enough poison into your partner's IV to kill him."

Jen stood there defiantly with her hands on her hips. "So either you'll kill him or we stand here until the original poison does the job?" Jen slid her hand down and put out two fingers, which Jill caught.

"I have a third idea," Jen said as her count went to one. She gently shook her other arm.

"What's that?" The Frenchman asked.

"We rescue our partner," Jen said.

A knife fell into her hand and she threw it at The Frenchman. It embedded itself into his arm, forcing him to drop the remote. Jill whipped out a tranq gun and shot The Frenchman, who collapsed to the ground.

The two of them ran to Lance. "Lance, wake up. Wake up!" Jen said in desperation, grabbing his face, as Jill removed the IV and prepared to give Lance the antidote.

Lance slowly stirred awake. "How long was I out?" he slurred.

"Long enough where we have to get this antidote into you right now," Jen replied.

"Wait," Jill said. "One of the side effects of this poison is it makes you tell the truth, right?" She checked her watch. "I've got ninety seconds, so I have to ask this. Lance, who is hotter? Jen or me?"

Lance looked slowly back and forth between the two. "Which name will get me in less trouble?"

Jill rolled her eyes in frustration as she gave Lance the antidote.

"THAT was your question?" Jen said angrily to Jill.

"Hey, when would we ever get the definitive answer to that? I really wanted to find out."

"Yeah, the poison makes you tell the truth, not turn you into a moron," Jen spat.

"And CUT!" Director Jerry Chechik shouted.

"Yes! Finally!" Jimmy Slade exclaimed as the P.A.s undid the ropes on the table and he got to his feet.

"Finally?" Chuck asked. He had been sitting with the crew watching the final scene of the episode being filmed. So far, he had received nothing but compliments on how the computer displays looked. There wasn't a lot of computer-related dialogue for this episode, but he checked to be certain anyway. He wanted to make sure he actually worked and didn't just clown around because he got the job thanks to his new 'girlfriend'.

"This was the first episode where Lance had to be rescued without being able to help," Jimmy replied. "Before this, he always got himself out or gave some help to Jen, Jill, and Duke. I had been asking the writers for this for a long time."

Chuck thought for a moment. "I think you're right. Any other episode in which you were captured or tortured, you got yourself out of it."

"I know. I was getting a lot of nasty mail about it. I swear, it felt like I was turning into some lame-assed Mary Sue character some lonely dude wrote up in a fan fiction story."

"Mary Sue?" Sarah asked.

"That's when someone writes a story for an existing show or movie and put themselves in it," Chuck explained. "Typically they can do no wrong, everyone likes them, and either they get laid a lot or die a hero. Well, a Marty Stu in this case, since Jimmy is a guy."

"I'll have to look up some of these stories one day."

"Oh, you don't want to do that," Jimmy cautioned her. "At least avoid the adult-rated ones. You'd be shocked at who Jen sleeps with in those. Half the time, it's with Jill; the other half it's a threesome with Duke and Lance."

Sarah felt a chill go through her…which got even worse when she looked over to see Carina quite intrigued. "I am so sorry I asked."

"I know," Jimmy said, sympathizing with Sarah's plight. "Anybody who writes a character like that needs to get laid more than I do."

Sarah wanted to put this discussion in the rear-view mirror. "Moving on quickly…can I talk to you in private, Chuck?"

"Sure," he replied. The two of them walked towards the back of the studio as everyone else verified the checklist for the scene they just filmed.

"Is everything OK?" Chuck asked.

"It's fine," Sarah replied. "I just didn't get a chance to talk to you about the other night."

Chuck hung his head. "That was my fault. I identified the wrong person as La Ciudad. I should have…"

"No, do not apologize," Sarah said, putting a finger to Chuck's lips to quiet him. Both of them stood there in silence for a moment, feeling the tension around them.

Sarah finally snapped out of it and took a step back. "We put you out in the field so you could help us identify Malena. But we never should have put you in danger like that."

"I really hope you weren't too upset at anybody. I mean, those three really are your partners and friends. You can tell they'd do anything for you."

Sarah looked at the ground and smiled. "I know a certain asset who is very good at that as well."

A grin came to Chuck's face which, despite Sarah's desire to get some distance between Chuck and her, was a welcome sight. "Well, they do miss me at the store. I guess things have gone downhill in the past week. Morgan was telling me…" The grin on Chuck disappeared instantly. "Morgan is here."

Sarah snapped back into agent mode. "Did you know he'd be here?"

"No, I told him I have to work and the studio couldn't have him visiting the set," Chuck replied as he pointed in the direction of Morgan.

He then froze. "Isn't that La Ciudad's really big bodyguard?"

Sarah looked in the same direction, and her eyes widened. She immediately got out her CIA-issue phone, which could put her in contact with her team instantly. "Casey, Carina, Jimmy, get to the back of the studio right now. La Ciudad is here."

Sarah grabbed Chuck's hand. "Let's go."

 _ **Buy More - Burbank, CA  
October 9, 2015  
1:00 PM PDT**_

Harry Tang knew it was lonely at the top, but he didn't care. He also didn't care that he became the Assistant Manager by default, nor did he care Big Mike would have hired Chuck had he not gone to work for his new girlfriend. The store was his now. The new lunch schedule was sure to raise hell with the employees, but he preferred to be feared rather than liked.

"Where is Chuck Bartowski?"

Tang turned around to see a large imposing man asking the question. Tang could hide his entire family behind this guy. And his house.

"Why? What has he done?" Tang asked.

"Because I need to speak to him."

"OK. Well, uh, if he's in any kind of trouble, you let me know. But he's not in the store right now." Harry pointed across the store to where Morgan was sitting and regaling those who would listen about his adventures in the locked cage. "The man in the green shirt with the beard probably knows where he is."

The very large man walked across the store. The look he gave Morgan made the other employees scatter in a heartbeat.

"You know where Chuck Bartowski is?"

The bravado Morgan previously felt about surviving the locked cage and his plans for a lawsuit evaporated quickly. "Uh, why do you need to see him?"

"I have to talk to him," the large man said. He then reached forward and pulled Morgan up by the lapels of his shirt with only one hand. "You will take me to him."

The man twisted Morgan's shirt, which tightened the collar around his neck. "Uh, sure. He's working right now, though. You sure this can't wait until later?" Morgan squeaked.

The man walked out of the store with Morgan in tow.

 _ **O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA  
October 9, 2015  
1:50 PM PDT**_

Sarah looked around the studio as Casey and Jimmy quickly went through the live surveillance cameras on a tablet computer. They only had a moment or two before Morgan and La Ciudad's bodyguard got to them, but Sarah knew La Ciudad had to be here somewhere.

"There," Casey said as he turned the image to the team. "She has three other men with her besides the bodyguard we already saw." They watched La Ciudad find a ladder leading up to a catwalk. She started to climb up with a sniper rifle hanging off of her back.

"This place is about to become a shooting range," Jimmy said.

"What?" Chuck said. "I thought you said they would try to get out of the country."

"Apparently, they don't scare that easily."

"Jimmy, get Chuck out of here," Sarah ordered. "Carina, you go help Morgan. Casey, take care of those other bodyguards any way you can. I'm going after La Ciudad."

Sarah ran for a ladder leading up to the catwalk while Carina walked towards Morgan and La Ciudad's bodyguard. Casey ran down the studio in search of the other bodyguards Malena brought with her.

"Come on, Chuck," Jimmy said as he pulled at Chuck's sleeve. They ran towards a storage cabinet 50 yards down the pathway, where Jimmy punched in a code to open it and took out his two Glock 17 pistols.

"You always carry two guns?" Chuck asked.

"I have a…slight inferiority complex," Jimmy said with a shrug.

Chuck shook his head in annoyance as Jimmy and he looked for a good place to hide.

~/^\~

Casey walked between a group of large set pieces as three of La Ciudad's bodyguards made their way through the studio. It was clear they were looking for Chuck or members of Sarah's team given they ignored anyone else who passed by. He made his way around one large piece of scenery and saw one of the bodyguards. He grabbed a rolling tripod and pushed it hard towards the unsuspecting bodyguard. The tripod crashed into the man and tripped him up. He tried to get up, but Casey was too fast for him, kicking the man's gun out of his hand and finishing him off with a hard jab.

The second bodyguard attacked him, giving Casey a kick to the head. Casey fell to the concrete, and the man went after him. Casey got up and the man threw another punch at him, only to have Casey duck and the man cry out from hitting Casey's skull. The man then threw a vertical kick to knock Casey down. Casey rolled to his right and scissor-kicked his legs, tripping the second bodyguard. He got to his feet, but the bodyguard managed to get to his knees and grab Casey's leg. Casey reached for the large camera on top of the tripod, wrenching it off and smashing the bodyguard in the face with it. The bodyguard collapsed.

Casey got up and looked at the two bodyguards he took out.

"How's that for an action scene?" he spat at them before looking for the third bodyguard.

~/^\~

Sarah snuck quietly along the catwalk as La Ciudad finished assembling her assault rifle and looked for a target. Sarah pulled out a set of handcuffs, wearing them like brass knuckles. She got to within two feet of La Ciudad. But the sound of metal coming from the rusting catwalk made La Ciudad turn around. Sarah quickly changed tactics and did a spinning back kick to knock the rifle out of La Ciudad's hands and down to the main floor. La Ciudad sent a back kick of her own to Sarah's face, knocking her down. La Ciudad was breathing fire as she nailed Sarah with two consecutive hooks, following it up with another kick to her face. Sarah tried to block her next shot, but La Ciudad got the upper hand, knocking Sarah back with a hard jab. She sent another kick at Sarah, but Sarah grabbed her leg. Unfortunately, La Ciudad was even faster and kicked backwards to knock Sarah down, who was barely staying on the catwalk. La Ciudad went to grab her to throw her over the railing.

~/^\~

Carina approached La Ciudad's bodyguard, who still had a tight grip on Morgan.

"What do you want?" Carina asked.

"I think this guy wants to kill me," Morgan squeaked in a voice a number of octaves above his usual one. "This really isn't the way I wanted to meet one of my favorite stars. Big fan, by the way."

The bodyguard throttled Morgan's collar to shut him up. "You will bring me Chuck Bartowski," he said in an extremely menacing voice.

"And why should I do that?" Carina said calmly, which made Morgan even more nervous. "Won't you just kill him anyway?"

"You will watch as I kill all of your friends, that's why."

"You know, you're a very unreasonable person. I give you what you want and you don't give me anything in return? It's like that episode we did in Prague, right Martin?"

Carina quickly looked up, which she hoped Morgan caught. Morgan saw the camera crane the bodyguard was standing under.

"Oh, I remember that episode. You were so cool in it," Morgan said. He turned to the bodyguard, who had lessened his grip slightly. "You see, Jen Burton was being held hostage by this big scary guy and Carina's character, Jill Garrett, had to get her out of it. So Jen did this…"

Morgan fainted and collapsed to the ground, taking the bodyguard by surprise. Carina pulled out a knife and threw it, cutting the hose for the hydraulics of the crane. The crane crashed down on the bodyguard's head.

Morgan crawled a few steps forward before getting up. "This is, like, the coolest day ever! I get to meet Carina Miller AND she saves my life! You can actually throw a knife like that? That wasn't a camera trick? That is SO epic!"

"We went through training to do that. Saves production expenses if we actually know how to throw."

"But who was this guy? Why was he after Chuck?"

"Must have been that stalker the police told us about," Carina said matter-of-factly to keep Morgan from getting too curious. "Some of these nutcases write letters, emails, they get obsessed. I guess this guy saw Chuck with Sarah the other night. Sometimes they get it in their head if they can't have Sarah then no one can."

"Sarah has a stalker?" Morgan asked in wide-eyed amazement.

"We all do. Sarah, Jimmy, me, even Casey has had a couple. It just helps to remain vigilant."

"Oh, man. Wait until I tell everyone a stalker took me hostage and Carina Miller saved my life!"

"No," Carina said forcefully, clamping her hand over Morgan's mouth. "You tell anyone and we end up with more people going after us. Do you really want to put your best friend in danger like that?"

Morgan shook his head and Carina took her hand off of his mouth. "Good," Carina replied. "After all, think of where that knife could end up if you make me mad."

"Y-y-y-yeah, OK. Understood," Morgan stammered.

~/^\~

La Ciudad got behind Sarah, attempting to throw her off of the catwalk. Sarah gripped the railing hard and snapped her head back three times in a row, nailing La Ciudad in the chin each time. La Ciudad was knocked back and Sarah managed to get off the railing. La Ciudad pulled a knife out of her boot and tried to lunge at Sarah, but Sarah grabbed her wrist, spun, and landed three consecutive elbows to La Ciudad's face. She twisted La Ciudad's arm to force her down to the floor and finished her off using the handcuffs, delivering a nasty hard cross to La Ciudad. She handcuffed the unconscious La Ciudad to the catwalk railing.

"Hang here," she said.

~/^\~

"Nobody's replying on comms," Jimmy said as he looked in both directions with guns drawn, hoping Casey did his job and Sarah could take out La Ciudad before she could get a shot off.

"Stay here and out of sight," he told Chuck. Chuck kept down between two stacks of pallets as Jimmy moved forward to get a better view. A pallet was smashed across his face and Jimmy fell to the ground, dropping his guns in the process. The third bodyguard went after the prone Jimmy, lifting him into the air. Jimmy boxed the man's ears hard, forcing the bodyguard to drop him. Jimmy sent a vertical kick at the man to knock him back. He went after the man but the bodyguard head-butted Jimmy and followed it up with a roundhouse. Jimmy tried to remain on his feet as the bodyguard took out a length of rope and wrapped it around Jimmy's neck, attempting to choke him to death. Chuck shook in fear as Jimmy couldn't get his arms up to break himself free. With a primal growl, Jimmy's hand shot down and grabbed the bodyguard's groin, twisting until the bodyguard screamed in pain. He let go of the rope and Jimmy sent a butterfly kick at him. The bodyguard stumbled backwards and tripped on a rolling pallet cart. The man fell to the ground, and Jimmy knocked him out with a kick to the head.

Jimmy then looked at the person who sent the rolling pallet cart into the aisle.

"Nicely done, Chuck," Jimmy said in appreciation. "Sometimes you gotta take matters into your own hands, right?"

"Given what you just did to that guy's balls, are you sure you want to say that?"

Jimmy's eyes widened and he looked at the unconscious bodyguard again. "Touché."

 _ **Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA  
October 9, 2015  
8:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck went to the door when he heard the knock. Ellie was already past the point of insanity. Not only would she meet Sarah for the first time, but she begged and pleaded for Jimmy and Carina to come to the apartment as well. Chuck asked both of them, emphasizing that they could say no without hurting anyone's feelings. He emphasized that as strongly as he could.

And still they were here.

"Hi," Chuck said nervously. He looked back, saw Ellie, Devon, and Morgan watching him, so he kissed Sarah on the cheek.

"Ouch." he said, pointing to his lip in the same spot where Sarah had a cut on hers. "You OK?"

"Occupational hazard," Sarah replied. "She got in a lucky kick."

"Come in, come in." Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy entered. As if on cue, Morgan went to say hi to Carina and Ellie was all over Jimmy.

"You must be Chuck's sister," Jimmy said. "He talks about you all the time. Clearly you raised him right."

"Stop," Ellie said, actually blushing in the process. "I just did the best I could."

"Wow, a doctor who's that humble? I didn't know they existed. But Chuck had asked to get an autograph for you…"

"Oh, you don't have to…"

"…but I thought that wasn't enough, so we wanted to give this to you." Jimmy handed a box to Ellie. "That's the five-season DVD set we're getting ready to sell for Christmas. You have the very first one and it has all of our signatures on it."

Ellie couldn't be more light-headed if it was 1964 and she got kissed by all four Beatles. "Thank you so much. I'm so glad Chuck got a job on your show."

"The man has talent," Jimmy replied with a smile.

"Oh, you gotta let me tell them how awesome you were today," Morgan practically begged Carina.

"Uh uh," Carina replied. "Remember…" She let the words trail off as a concealed knife waved around Morgan's groin did the talking for her.

~/^\~

Chuck and Sarah walked outside, the party still going on inside. They almost felt sorry for Carina and Jimmy with Morgan and Ellie hounding their every move.

"Congratulations on your first mission," Sarah said. "You did really good, Chuck."

"Stop it," he said, looking at the ground. "I'm not really a spy. Your computer ended up in the head of a guy who only knows how to fix them, nothing else."

"You survived a near-death experience under the threat of torture AND apprehended one of the world's most elusive killers. I'm not sure what you think spies do exactly, but most of us would consider that a pretty good day."

"OK, so today I helped take down an international arms dealer. But nobody will know about it. Not my friends, not my sister. I mean, what's the good about being a hero if nobody knows about it?"

"You know," Sarah replied. "So does Casey, Carina, Jimmy, the entire CIA knows." She gave him a smile. "And so do I."

Chuck returned the smile, which made Sarah's face light up even more. "You know, if we were really dating, this would be the part where I'd be forced to kiss you good night."

"Forced?" Sarah replied with a playful lilt. "Would it be so bad?"

"I'm sure I could suffer through it."

"Me, too."

They stared at each other for a moment. Sarah could see that look in his eyes, the look she had seen from assets before when the lines got blurred. Ordinarily she could easily dismiss it. But this time, she felt the blur herself. Chuck was unlike any other asset she had ever encountered. The way he was concerned for his friends and family, his desire to continue to help his co-workers at the Buy More, and now how concerned he was about Sarah and her team put Sarah in a position she had never been in before with anyone. Jimmy was right; she needed to create some distance.

She turned and walked away before she did something to make everyone's lives far more complicated. Chuck turned back towards the apartment. The door opened, and Carina and Jimmy departed, saying goodbye to Chuck as they left. Two steps behind Carina was Morgan, who couldn't follow Carina faster if she tied a leash to his neck.

Chuck watched Ellie pick up the plates and silverware from the table and place them in the dishwasher. She turned back towards the living room and saw Chuck.

"That was a fun night," Ellie said. "Who knew those three were so nice? And I know stars in Hollywood are even better looking than when you see them on the screen, but it's such a shock to see it for yourself. Jimmy is very handsome, Carina is lovely. And Sarah is so beautiful. You really hit the jackpot with her."

Chuck hung his head. "What's wrong?" Ellie asked.

"Look, sis, I know that I've been kind of evasive. It's just that I…I didn't want to lie to you and I chose not saying anything as being the lesser of two evils."

"Why would you have to lie to me?"

"Ellie, I just need you to trust me and know it has nothing to do with you."

"But you want me to butt out. I get it. It's none of my business."

"No! No, no, no, no, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I…I just don't want to create a false sense of excitement for a relationship that seems doomed."

"Why is it doomed?"

Chuck exhaled, remembering Sarah walking away a few minutes ago. "Because she's not into me."

"Uh, trust me. I saw the way that girl looked at you tonight and she is into you."

Chuck's entire face lit up at that. "Really?"

"It's none of my business," Ellie replied dismissively.

"OK, no. OK, fine. What the hell. What do you…what do you want to ask me about Sarah?"

"Really?"

"You better hurry up. This offer will not last."

"OK. Do you like her?"

Chuck looked at the ground sheepishly. "Yeah." Ellie began to squeal. "Ha! Da-da-da, no unnecessary excitements."

Ellie calmed down. "Sorry. Sorry."

"What else?"

"That's it."

"That's it?"

Yeah. Chuck, that's it. I don't need to know the intimate details, OK? As long as you're happy, that's enough for me. And I don't…I don't want to nag you about your future and your job. I don't want to be the sister that just pesters you into oblivion…"

"No, no, no. You're not a pest."

"I just know what an incredible guy Charles Bartowski is, and sometimes I'm not sure that he knows it."

Chuck smiled. It was exactly what he needed at the end of a very long day. "How do you feel about a brother-sister hug situation right now?"

Ellie nodded. "I'm open to it."

"OK," Chuck replied as the two siblings hugged.

 _ **O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA  
October 13, 2015  
10:15 AM PDT**_

Chuck walked down the long hallway of the studio with Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy on the way to meet Casey. They were going over items needed for the newest episode of the show. There were a couple of scenes where they would have to have Carina's character sit at a computer and hack an enemy's communications system, and Chuck wanted to find out from Casey if the camera angles they needed could be blocked correctly for the shot.

"That's quite a request, Chuck," Sarah said. "Usually we just edit in a simulated computer screen. They've been doing that for years."

"Yeah, but I wanted to give the impression that the security system was unhackable," Chuck replied. "That would mean Jill had more work to do, especially since Jen and Lance would have to infiltrate the facility…"

A man who was trying to hurry down the hall accidentally bumped into Chuck and Sarah. "Sorry," he said and moved faster down the hall.

"No, I like the idea," Sarah replied. "But they have us on these insane timetables and this sounds like a lot of…"

Sarah stopped and grabbed her left arm. Her breathing shallowed and she collapsed to the ground. Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy looked at her in shock.

"What the…" Jimmy said and then looked down the studio. He put two and two together quickly. "CASEY! GREEN HAT AND BLACK JACKET!"

Casey turned and saw the man Jimmy was talking about. The man went into a full sprint and Casey gave chase.

"Oh, my God," Chuck said as he knelt by Sarah. He grabbed Sarah's wrist. "No pulse!" he cried. He immediately started to perform CPR.

"I'll get the kit!" Jimmy yelled and sprinted across the studio to get the emergency kit.

"Can you handle that, Chuck?" Carina asked.

"I have a sister and inevitable brother-in-law who are doctors. How could I NOT know CPR?"

Casey chased the man out of the studio and into the parking lot. The man weaved back and forth between the parked cars. Casey leaped up and jumped from car to car to quickly close the distance. Casey jumped off the hood of a pick-up truck and tackled the man to the concrete. The man tried to pull out a gun, but Casey grabbed it and smashed it across the man's head.

"Don't move," Casey said as he stood up, keeping the gun trained on the man. The man surreptitiously slipped his hand inside of his coat and squeezed hard on an object inside of it. Suddenly the man began to convulse. Casey pulled the man's hand out of his coat to find a short needle and an empty syringe. The man stopped moving. Casey checked the man's pulse to not find it. He stood and kicked at the corpse, upset they would never find out who this was.

Chuck continued his compressions on Sarah as Jimmy sprinted back with the kit and an oxygen tank. Carina opened the emergency kit as Jimmy prepared the automated external defibrillator. Carina took a needle attached to a computer in the kit and inserted it into Sarah's vein while Jimmy placed the AED pads on Sarah.

Chuck was quickly growing tired of giving compressions. "Come on, Chuck," Jimmy said. "Keep that going."

The computer determined the type of poison the man gave Sarah and a compartment in the kit opened up with the proper antidote. Carina attached it to the needle and injected Sarah with it. Jimmy charged the AED.

"Please, Sarah," Carina said as they waited for the AED to reach a full charge.

"Charging…" Jimmy said. "Charging…charging…CLEAR!"

Chuck and Carina backed away from Sarah, and Jimmy activated the AED, giving Sarah a shock. He checked for her pulse.

"Come on, kiddo," Jimmy said breathlessly. "Tell me you're still with us…I got a pulse."

The three of them leaned back in relief. Chuck took the oxygen mask, placed it over Sarah's mouth, and switched it on.

"OK, give me those pads," Jimmy said, reaching for the defibrillator pads on Sarah. "Now I need this damn thing."

Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy sat around Sarah, waiting for her to wake up. Casey joined them. After a few moments, Sarah's eyes opened.

"What…what happened?" she said quietly.

"Chuck saved your life," Jimmy said as he stood up. He noticed how Sarah was looking at Chuck just now. "And made our lives much harder."


	6. The Truth About Stanford

_Hello again. It took some time, but things have calmed down enough for me to put out the next chapter. I originally planned to make this chapter a bit longer and cut it at a different point, but time was not on my side of late. Plus, I wanted to get in this new chapter before I moved to a new place later this week. I also tried to mix things up a bit from the show canon (still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions). Not sure if I did that well, but hopefully people will review and tell me one way or another._

 _BTW, I know it looks like Professor Flemming's name is spelled wrong, but I checked with the episodes and the name plaque on his desk spelled it that way. So blame Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak for that. After all, I still blame them for thinking there is such as thing as the "Moonlighting Curse."_

 _Please enjoy this chapter and please give reviews. Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **Palo Alto, CA  
October 13, 2015  
9:45 AM PDT**_

"This is Glass Castle, reporting hostile contact!"

Professor George Flemming cursed his stupidity. That assassin found him while giving a lecture. He didn't think his actions were being watched or his computer monitored. He was just a scientist who worked for the CIA with a cover job at Stanford. But he had been in the business long enough where he should have known better.

"I made a mistake, Black Coat. I copied intel for myself onto a disc. They're after it. I know I shouldn't have…"

The incessant pounding on his office door cut off his cry for help. He gathered as many file folders as he could and escaped through a trap door in the back of the office just as Magnus broke in.

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
October 13, 2015  
12:00 PM PDT**_

" _Are you all right, Sarah?"_

" _Did you get injured on the set?"_

" _Where is Charles?"_

" _Are you two still together?"_

Sarah shook her head in frustration as she was wheeled from the labs towards an examination room. "I'm fine. Just overworked. And of course we're still together! You don't break up with someone you really like after only a couple of weeks."

" _Then why isn't he here?"_

"He's avoiding all of you, just like we told him to," Jimmy said, acting extremely upset. At least Sarah hoped he was just acting. "He's hasn't been in the spotlight very long. Do you really think we'd throw him to the wolves like that? Or did you forget that BS you tried of hooking me up to Britney Spears last year? Christ, even Howard Stern has more tact than most of you."

Sarah entered the room with Jimmy right on her heels. The security people they brought with them created a rather menacing barrier the reporters weren't going to get through, so the majority of them started to leave…until they saw Ellie Bartowski head towards the examination room. But she walked past them without even acknowledging their presence nor did she respond to a single question being shouted at her.

Sarah got up from the wheelchair and lay on the examination table while Jimmy slumped into the other chair in the room. The orderly who wheeled Sarah into the room exited.

"You still won't let that go," Sarah said with a smirk.

"You take one goddamn picture in Vegas and everybody thinks you're doing her," Jimmy growled. "She's a fan of the show and asked for a selfie. I have a picture of me and Matt Damon at a charity event in Boston. Was I sleeping with him, too?"

"No, but your interview on Jimmy Kimmel was so much funnier."

He rolled his eyes. "That's the only time I get to be on the talk shows: when they have something to humiliate me with or to plug the show. You wear some elegant outfit or something that shows some leg and they're begging you to be the first guest."

"I'm the title character!" Sarah said in exasperation. "I'm the star of the show. I have to do them, but they need another person from the show to also do interviews. It's not my fault Casey and Carina don't like the spotlight. I know you hate it just as much but you're good with interviews. Better than me, in fact. You can think on your feet and are way more entertaining."

"Yeah, Secret Agent Jimmy Slade," Jimmy grumbled. "Now doing two shows a night at the Tropicana. Don't forget to tip your servers!"

She looked at Jimmy for a moment. "Speaking of which, why are you here? Where is Chuck?"

"He's with Casey and Carina. Hopefully he can flash on this S.O.B. who tried to kill you. The guy decided to off himself rather than talk. We're playing for keeps now. And we're going to need Ellie's help to keep a lid on this, so I thought we'd get more cooperation if I talked to her. You saw how she was all over me the other night."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "YOU came up with the idea to charm someone? Now I know we're in uncharted territory."

"We need her. I told the EMTs who brought you here to give the blood sample directly to her and that she should analyze it herself. I'm hoping she'll appreciate us being honest with her. We can't let anybody know why you're really here. The shinola would really hit the fan if that happened."

Of course, Jimmy left out the most important reason he was here instead of Chuck. The way Sarah looked at Chuck when she found out he saved her life may have ended any hope of Sarah getting some distance from him. Not that Jimmy could blame her for that, but it was an uncontrollable factor that could put everyone in even greater danger.

The door opened and Ellie entered. She waited for the door to close so nobody outside would hear her. "What is going on? Is Chuck in danger?"

"Not at all, Dr. Bartowski," Jimmy said. "But we wanted you to hear this from us directly. We owe you that much."

Ellie opened the folder she was carrying to the analysis on Sarah's blood sample. "Who poisoned you?"

"We think it was that stalker the FBI had warned us about," Sarah replied. "We get them from time to time. I've had a few. So have Casey and Jimmy."

"Carina gets the most, but she thinks it's a compliment," Jimmy quipped.

Sarah gave him a dirty look before turning back to Ellie. "You've taken psychology classes, Doctor. You know how some people can become obsessed. This stalker had been following me for months, but I guess seeing your brother with me set him off."

Ellie exhaled slowly. "Look, I know this is not your fault and I don't want to tell him to stop seeing you because of this but I don't want him being put in danger."

"I don't blame you, Doc," Jimmy replied, attempting a soothing voice and giving that 'piercing eyes' look Sarah taught him. "The last thing any of us want is to put you, Chuck, or anybody else in harm's way. Fortunately, we've doubled security around the studio. We've received no new reports of anybody having a stalker. And unless the judge at the arraignment is the biggest idiot in the world, this bastard won't be getting out of jail. Chuck is safe, I promise. And we'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way."

Sarah gave a little smile she hoped Ellie wouldn't see. Through all the lying Jimmy just did, the most important thing he did say was the truth. That's why she was proud to have Casey, Carina, and Jimmy as partners and friends. The four of them would do anything for each other. And she knew that included protecting Chuck.

"Thank you, Jimmy," Ellie said. "And thanks to both of you for coming to me directly about this."

Sarah looked down at the ground. "We should be thanking you. Chuck was the one to save my life. And it's pretty obvious where he got his penchant for heroics from."

Ellie smiled. "I'm glad he did. He really likes you. And I can see why."

Sarah smiled warmly at that thought, but Jimmy clamped up behind Ellie. As if Chuck saving her life hadn't complicated things enough already.

Ellie's phone began to beep. "Dr. Bartowski, we have a Code Blue in your section. Walk-in from the street."

The smile on Ellie's face disappeared. "I'll be right back."

Ellie rushed out of the room to find the source of the Code Blue. She found a man staggering through the halls who appeared to be disoriented.

"I need a gurney and a crash cart, STAT!" she yelled. She grabbed the man's shoulders to stop him as two orderlies came up to her from behind with a gurney. She checked the man's pupils and felt for a heartbeat.

"Get him into ICU Room Four," she ordered the two men with the gurney, who grabbed the man and placed him on it. Nobody noticed the man slip a locket inside of Ellie's lab coat. The three ran down the hall with the man to the ICU.

 _ **O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA  
October 13, 2015  
12:00 PM PDT**_

Compared to where he was now, Chuck would take that crazy ride in the limousine any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Casey and Carina brought him to see the dead body of the man who tried to kill Sarah. It was bad enough he was still freaking out over how close she came to death only a couple of hours ago. Now he had to look at a dead body live and in person. This was way worse than just looking at pictures of dead people. The man still had streaks of blood along his mouth from whatever he injected himself with to prevent being interrogated.

"The driver's license was forged," Carina told Chuck and Casey. "They ran his fingerprints through NCIC and the NSA databases but they haven't gotten any hits yet."

"Bartowski, what about you?" Casey asked.

"What, do I have to look at him? It's kind of creepy. There's a reason why I never watched _CSI_."

"We need information and we need it fast," Casey snarled. He took a moment to calm himself, remembering Chuck was still new to all of this. "This wasn't some obsessed fan who attacked her. He chose to commit suicide rather than be taken. He went after Sarah and I want to know why."

Chuck exhaled to steady himself. Casey was right, and he wanted to find out why Sarah was attacked as much as her team did. He looked closely at the face of the dead man.

"Nothing's happening," Chuck said, disappointed he couldn't help. "I'm sorry."

"What about the thing he injected himself with?" Carina asked.

Casey put on a pair of gloves and carefully retrieved the needle and syringe from the man's coat. He laid it on top of the corpse and Chuck had a look. He started to feel a bit squeamish when the Intersect kicked in. He saw a chemical equation, an organizational flowchart, and the face of a man he had never seen before. But the man had seen him. It was the same man at the nightclub.

"What is it, Chuck?" Carina asked.

"I'm not…I saw a chemical equation which I think was the poison the guy injected into himself. Definitely man-made and designed to kill. Then I saw a bunch of names on a chart and the picture of a guy. Scary guy, had a long scar on his face."

"No names you recognized?" Casey asked.

"No, but it must be some kind of organization if I saw a chart."

Casey's and Carina's phones beeped. "Beckman's ordered us back to base and to bring Chuck," Carina said.

"Base? What base?"

"During the week, we set up in the room across from Sarah's at the hotel," Casey said. "We're wall to wall with computers, surveillance equipment, weapons, the works. Easier to have it there than the studio. Fewer civilian factors to deal with."

Casey grabbed his jacket and tossed Chuck's to him. "Let's go."

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
October 13, 2015  
1:30 PM PDT**_

Riordan Payne walked through the halls of the hospital, grateful he thought ahead to create a fake hospital ID and steal a lab coat. He knew Mason Whitney was here somewhere but he wasn't sure whether Whitney had the locket with the nuclear arsenal codes on his person yet. The truth serum Payne dosed him with did its job in forcing Whitney to admit who he was and where he had hidden the locket. But since the poison needed time to take effect and then only gave the victim a few hours after that before it killed them, time was of the essence.

He walked past one of the rooms in the ICU, the only one that was occupied. He saw a female doctor and several nurses surrounding Whitney. Judging by the intense looks on everyone's face, they were likely trying to revive him. _Good luck with that_ , he thought. Only the antidote would save Whitney at this point.

The female doctor moved around the bed and Payne saw the name on her photo ID. He would pay Dr. Eleanor Bartowski a visit to see what she knew.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
October 13, 2015  
1:15 PM PDT**_

"We have a situation," General Beckman began over teleconference. "A CIA asset sent out an emergency call earlier today. Attempts at finding him thus far have proven fruitless."

An image of Professor Flemming appeared on the monitor. "No way," Chuck said breathlessly.

"Did you just have a flash?" Carina asked.

"I don't have to. That guy was my professor at Stanford." Chuck stared at the monitor in complete shock. "Wait, asset? He's CIA? My professor was a spy?"

"CIA recruits on campuses across the country," Casey said. "Sometimes looking for promising agents like Walker and Miller, some for experimentation like Slade was. Professor Flemming is a company scientist, not an agent."

Graham played the audio conversation Flemming made asking for help. "Do we know what intel he copied?" Carina asked.

"No," Beckman replied.

"He's handled many sensitive projects over the years," Graham added. "Any leak could prove devastating."

"How can we help?" Casey asked.

"Flemming has contacts in L.A. If we find him, you can extract him."

"We'd like your help on this, Chuck," Beckman said.

Chuck looked back and forth between Casey and Carina. He could actually feel the proverbial wind going out of his sails. "Look, I…I really don't think I'm your go-to guy on this one."

"Your knowledge of Flemming and Stanford is key here," Graham replied. "We only have his official reports. You have a personal connection."

"Yeah, I do have a personal connection. A very bad personal connection. Look, you guys have the file, so you know all about Flemming and what happened to me. The guy kicked me out of school."

"He's one of us, Bartowski," Casey said. "Believe it."

Chuck looked at the ground. "Maybe you can find somebody else to help you this time. Maybe just this once."

Chuck stood slowly and walked out of the room with his entire body slouched.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
October 13, 2015  
5:00 PM PDT**_

After the events of the day, Chuck just wanted some peace and quiet. Naturally, he wasn't that lucky.

Devon and his UCLA fraternity brothers were whooping it up in the courtyard, complete with a barbecue and a game of catch with a football. Unfortunately, Chuck forgot about the UCLA-Stanford game Thursday night.

"Hey Chuck! Go deep, brah!" Devon shouted to him as he threw the ball. True to how the day went, Chuck was drilled in the groin.

"Oooh, right in the pills!" one of Devon's fraternity brothers exclaimed.

Devon ran over to Chuck to see if he was all right. "No, no!" Chuck shouted. "Please don't…please don't touch me."

"Chuck, come on man!" Devon said to him as he pulled him back up. "Let me make it up to you, bro. Get up. I got you a ticket for the game. We're driving up there tomorrow afternoon before traffic hits and then spend a long weekend."

"Wow, thanks," Chuck barely eked out. "But, uh, I want to be there when they release Sarah from the hospital. And no offense, but I'd rather get hit in the produce section again than go back to that place."

Devon shrugged. "Suit yourself. Now I've lost both Bartowskis for the weekend."

"What do you mean?"

"Ellie had a tough patient to deal with today and there were some complications, so she won't be able to drive up there with us. But dude, you've got to let that go. What happened at Stanford was years ago."

"Yeah, I know what happened," Chuck replied, unable to get the bitterness out of his voice. "What happened was I was kicked out for something I didn't do. So me and Stanford? We're officially done."

Chuck walked into the apartment and fell onto his bed. Harry Tang couldn't dream up a bad day for him of this magnitude. Sarah almost died, some sort of organization was in on it, he had to get close to a corpse, everybody wanted him to help with Professor Flemming and didn't care he was the one to kick him out of Stanford, and he got drilled in the balls by his sister's boyfriend.

Harry Tang's ban on Red Bull at the store didn't seem so bad anymore.

He rubbed his eyes and stood, going to the closet and pulling out a box buried deep inside. Maybe Devon was right. Maybe it was time to let Stanford go. He managed to survive without it, and now he was helping others thanks to one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood and her friends, who just happen to be secret agents. There was no way in hell he could have dreamt that up while taking those Electrical Engineering classes at Stanford.

In the box, he pulled out the picture of his fraternity brothers from Gamma Delta Phi. He remembered that day a dozen years ago as if it just happened. All of his fraternity brothers were there to say goodbye to him. All of them were sorry to see him go...except Bryce. Bryce was the one to turn him in and slept with Jill to boot. Chuck never felt so betrayed in his life

" _I don't get it, Bryce. Why are you doing this?"_

" _You did this to yourself."_

Chuck angrily walked to the trash can in the apartment complex and threw the contents of the box into it. He reached down to pick up his Stanford University ID, which had fallen to the ground. He took a look at it.

He panicked and headed for his car to drive back to the hotel. He pounded on the door to the new conference room. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were there.

"What?" Casey said in a none-too-happy tone of voice.

Chuck held up his ID. "I just flashed on myself. Why am I in the Intersect?"

Casey stepped aside to let Chuck in. "What are you talking about?" Carina asked.

"I saw my picture, my school records, everything. How did the government even know about me?"

"No idea," Jimmy replied. "None of us had even heard of you before we arrived in Burbank."

"Wait, could this have to do with Professor Flemming? You said he was CIA."

"Possibly, but we'd have to find him first."

"And that won't be easy," Casey said, turning a monitor towards Chuck. "We just got new intel that Flemming is being hunted by this man: Magnus Einersson. A student in his class IDed the man. He's an Icelandic spy."

"Iceland does espionage?" Chuck said in disbelief.

"Magnus buys and sells intel to the highest bidder. Iceland isn't 'officially' aware of his activities."

"According to the intel, a crossbow is his weapon of choice," Carina said.

"What? Slingshot too ineffective?"

"We find Flemming, we bring him in," Casey said. "You'll come along. You're a friendly face. The professor sees you, he'll be more inclined to cooperate."

"How do we even know he's here in L.A.?"

The computer Jimmy was sitting at beeped. "We do now. Just got a hit off of a CALTRANS traffic cam. I'm sending the plate number and make of the car to the state to get an address."

"Chuck, we need this," Carina said. "On this job, you have to put your personal feelings aside on a daily basis. Casey's had to arrest his former sensei, I had to pose as a fiancé to stop a dangerous arms dealer, and Jimmy once had to rescue an asset who used to beat him up all the time in grammar school."

Chuck looked at Jimmy in incredulity given Jimmy's appearance now. "You used to get beaten up all the time?"

Jimmy waved it off. "Long story, you don't want to hear it. But Carina's right. Plus, maybe Flemming has some answers for what happened to you at Stanford. If we can find him, maybe you can make peace with that part of your life."

Chuck took a long exhale and nodded. "OK, I'll do my best."

"That's all we need," Jimmy replied. "But now for the tough part. Who gets to tell Sarah she has to stay in the hospital and out of this operation?"

Chuck, Casey, and Carina all looked at Jimmy, who quietly growled. "Saw that one coming a mile away," he muttered in disgust.

"What?" Chuck asked. "Will she be that upset?"

Casey shook his head. "Walker's a professional. She'll understand."

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
October 13, 2015  
8:30 PM PDT**_

"Hey!"

"Not a chance in hell!"

Jimmy couldn't have ducked and dove faster if someone aimed a tennis cannon at him. He delivered the plans the team drew up for finding Flemming to Sarah, and now anything not nailed down in her hospital room was coming at his head.

"It's a simple extraction. Casey and Carina can handle it!"

"You did this without telling me? AND you decided I should spend the night in the hospital?"

Sarah tried to throw the vase of flowers the team got for her at Jimmy. He dove towards her bed, popped back up, grabbed both of her wrists, and crossed them over each other.

"In case you may have forgotten, someone tried to kill you today! They went specifically after you! They could have killed Chuck, Carina, or me, but they didn't. They wanted you dead. Can you guarantee someone won't take another shot? Only this person might miss and get one of us? Especially Chuck?"

Sarah probably could have gotten out of the wristlock Jimmy had on her…if he wasn't 100 pounds heavier, she wasn't lying down, and she had no qualms about inflicting permanent damage on him. Well, the last one wouldn't be a huge problem apart from the paperwork.

"You didn't refer to him as an asset, either," Sarah said quietly.

Jimmy sighed and let go of her wrists. "True. But after what he did for you earlier today, I think we're past the point of no return."

Sarah sat up in the bed. Jimmy cautiously backed away, and Sarah gave him a dirty look. She buried her face in her hands. "You were right. I'm letting myself get too close to him. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing at all. You had a tough time growing up. It's no secret your pattern is an attraction to guys who treat you as you want to be treated. The way you deserve to be treated. You thought Bryce was like that but you were wrong. You thought I was like that but you were REALLY wrong."

Sarah reached forward and smacked Jimmy upside the head. "Moving on," she said. "So you think Chuck might be another such person?"

Jimmy shrugged. "I have no idea. And I hate to say it, but either you can love him or you can protect him. But you can't do both."

Sarah sank back on the bed again, her mind racing in all directions. She remembered what happened with Bryce and it broke her heart. She thought Jimmy was the solution to Bryce, but she was grateful now he transitioned so easily into 'friend zone' material. Now she was dealing with an asset who cared more about others than himself, particularly her. A guy who wore his heart on his sleeve and wasn't guarded like so many of the people she had encountered in her life. There was no doubt in her mind now there was something special about Chuck Bartowski.

"What do you think?" she asked Jimmy.

"It's your decision to make," he replied. "We'll help you as best as we can, but there's great risk no matter what you decide."

A knock on the door interrupted them. Ellie walked in still in her lab coat and looked exhausted.

"Is everything OK, Doc?"

She shook her head sadly. "The guy I had to leave you earlier to take care of? He didn't make it. I don't understand. We did every last thing we could for him, but he still didn't pull through. I'm hoping the autopsy will yield us some results tomorrow."

Ellie took a look around the room. "Is the hospital food that bad around here, Sarah?"

Sarah looked down and smiled. "No, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I was told I had to stay in the hospital overnight and I didn't react very well to that. I'm a workaholic when it comes to that show."

"THAT I can attest to," Jimmy said.

"Hopefully we can have you out of here tomorrow," Ellie replied. "I know it's tough to have to stay in the hospital but you were put through a lot today and you need time to recover."

Sarah nodded. "You're right, Dr. Bartowski."

"Oh, sure," Jimmy said with a sideways glance at Sarah. "You're nice and calm when the Doc tells you that but I say it and you try to smash me with a vase like it's a damn prop."

"Yeah, I need to get some sleep," Ellie said tiredly. "Just wanted to check to see how you were doing."

"Thank you for your help today," Sarah said warmly, which put a smile on Ellie's face despite her mood.

 _ **Los Angeles, CA  
October 14, 2015  
10:00 AM PDT**_

CALTRANS relayed Flemming's L.A. address to the team. An NSA observation team parked itself outside of Flemming's house but did not see him come home.

"You know what to do, Chuck?" Carina asked.

"I know, let you know if I flash on any bad guys," he replied tiredly, the two large cups of coffee he drank earlier having no effect on him.

"Otherwise…" Casey said in a command-like fashion.

"…stay in the car," Chuck finished.

Casey and Carina exited the vehicle and walked towards the house. Casey covered Carina as she tried to pick the lock on Flemming's house. Chuck watched with a minimal amount of interest until he caught the face of someone in the driver's side mirror of the car. It was Flemming.

Chuck bounded out of the car. "Professor Flemming! Hey!" Flemming dropped the groceries he was carrying and ran for his life. "No no no no, wait Professor! It's me, Chuck!"

Flemming kept running. "Professor, we're here to extract you!" Chuck shouted, which didn't slow Flemming down. "Glass castle! Glass castle!"

That got Flemming's attention. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…I didn't mean to scare you. It's me, Chuck. I was in your Psychology and Symbolism class at Stanford. I don't know if you remember me, but…"

"Chuck Bartowski?" Flemming said. "Of course I remember you."

Chuck laughed nervously. "Yeah, I guess it's not every day you kick a guy out of school, huh. At least I hope not."

"So you're with the Agency now? Why didn't you say so?"

"I…don't think I'm supposed to, really."

"Well, we have code phrases. Didn't they train you?"

"I…haven't been doing this long. Usually I just stay in the car."

"Next time, if it's a dangerous situation, say "Are you coming to the toga party?"."

"Wow, I like that. A real code phrase. That's awesome."

"So what are we doing now?"

"Well, uh, Carina and Casey will take care of you, but I was wondering if I could ask you something first. Why did the CIA have a file on me at Stanford?"

Flemming looked down at the ground. He wanted to tell Chuck but couldn't. "I'm sorry, I…"

Flemming went silent and fell forward into Chuck's arms. "Oh, hey…hey buddy," Chuck said to comfort him. "Let's not beat ourselves up, you know?"

Then Chuck felt the arrow sticking out of Flemming's back. "Oh boy! OK, OK, hang in there!"

Flemming fell forward to the ground on top of Chuck. "Give this to Bryce Larkin!" he screamed weakly, waving a piece of paper in his hand.

Chuck took the piece of paper and tried to make sense of the numbers and letters Flemming wrote on it. "Bryce? What does Bryce have to do with this?"

Chuck never got a chance to find out as an arrow went straight through the piece of paper. Magnus walked up to the prone Chuck and reloaded his crossbow. He picked up the other arrow and the piece of paper attached to it. He aimed his crossbow at Chuck's eyes.

Magnus then ran from the scene as Casey and Carina tried to shoot him. "Man down! Man down!" Chuck shouted. "Man down! Help me! Help!"

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
October 14, 2015  
2:30 PM PDT**_

Ellie sat back in her chair. Although she felt a little bit better than she did last night, the last thing she wanted was to talk to the police about what happened to Mason Whitney. It wasn't the first time she had to discuss a patient with the police, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it.

"OK, Doctor," the officer said. "I just need to take a picture to upload to the database and have you sign your statement."

The officer looked at Ellie. "Wait a second." He walked up to Ellie's side. "If you don't mind?" He brushed some of Ellie's hair back. "Just have to get a good shot for the facial recognition software." He didn't tell her about the tracking device he slipped behind her ear.

He took the picture and then took out a pen. "And if you could just sign your statement?"

Ellie took the pen he proffered and clicked it open. She signed the statement, completely unaware the pen was giving her a dosage of truth serum.

"Thank you for your time, Dr. Bartowski," the police officer said, taking the pen and document and leaving Ellie's office.

Riordan Payne went through a lot of effort to get close to Dr. Bartowski. He hoped she would lead him to the locket before the truth serum killed her.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
October 14, 2015  
2:00 PM PDT**_

"You don't remember anything else, Chuck?"

"It was a stressful situation," Chuck said in exasperation to Carina. "I saw a guy get skewered with a crossbow."

"You can't remember a single number on that piece of paper?" Casey asked.

"I don't know. I mean, why would he want me to bring those numbers to Bryce?"

"Flemming was probably never told about Bryce's death," Carina replied.

Chuck exhaled in frustration. "I know there were ten numbers. A couple of nines, a five, it definitely started with a two…"

"You have a computer in your brain and you can't recall ten numbers?" Casey said with some derision.

"I…don't know! OK?" Chuck buried his face in his hands. Casey's lack of concern for what happened to him was really starting to grate on his nerves. He slowly raised his head. "Look, Flemming knew something. Right before, he said 'I'm sorry'. Why would he say that?"

"Don't know," Carina replied.

Chuck let his head drop back into his hands. What was the connection between Bryce and those numbers? Suddenly it hit him like a thunderbolt. He remembered the assassination games he always played with Bryce…and how Bryce always outsmarted him somehow.

"I have it," Chuck said. "Those numbers are for a book in the Stanford Library. Bryce had a place where he would stash stuff. I bet he told Flemming about it. The professor must have the intel there for Bryce to find."

"But then it's only a matter of time before Magnus figures it out and beats us to the book," Casey said.

"Bingo."

"Unless we beat him to it."

Chuck felt the energy coming back to him. "Bryce kept his stuff on the third floor. There was a turn…"

Chuck forgot the pathway Bryce took to get to his stash. He sighed. "I'd have to be there to remember it. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I have to go back to Stanford."

"Cool," Casey replied with a tiny smile, which was probably his equivalent of an ear-to-ear grin.


	7. The Toga Party

_Hello. Hope everyone is doing well. Things have finally quieted down around here. I actually moved to a new apartment in the interim and was having some difficulty working this chapter out the way I wanted. And I'm not sure I succeeded. But hopefully I kept true to the original material (still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions) while adding little bits here and there from the AU part of this story. I also tried to get Carina more involved in the story (she plays a big part in a season 2 chapter that also goes a bit into her background), but she's every bit of a capable agent as the rest, if a little wild. Also, I hope the 'truth' part of Chuck vs. the Truth worked as well here as it did on the show, given you can't have Lou in this story. After all, she'd know Chuck was dating Sarah._

 _BTW, I do find it funny that I got the dates to match when UCLA actually played Stanford this upcoming week, which is why the game was suddenly on a Thursday instead of a Saturday._

 _Anyway, enjoy the chapter and please leave reviews!_

* * *

 _ **Palo Alto, CA  
October 15, 2015  
5:45 PM PDT**_

"Now THIS is what I call a tailgate!"

Devon couldn't believe it. Not only did Chuck change his mind about attending the football game, but he managed to bring John Casey and Carina Miller with him. He thought it was a bit weird Chuck decided to change his mind and leave Sarah behind, but Chuck had told him Sarah insisted he go. Not only that, Carina appeared to be the Martha Stewart of tailgating, given the spread of food and varieties of drinks she procured…including lots of expensive beer for his fraternity brothers. If only Ellie could have joined them, but at least Sarah and Jimmy Slade were bringing her dinner in Los Angeles as a thank you for taking care of Sarah in the hospital and to boost her spirits after losing her patient the other day.

"Overdoing it a bit here, Miller?" Casey quietly growled at her.

"Big picture, Casey," she replied. "The library is off the quad and that's where a good part of the tailgating is going on. Since we'll draw attention one way or another, we may as well make a big splash."

"A big splash? Roman orgies were more subtle than this."

"That's because you decided to be in R.O.T.C. at Rutgers during the Reagan era. The one thing you learn going to school at Alabama is how to tailgate. And being a cheerleader certainly helps."

"Yeah, particularly when you sleep with the entire football team," Casey said with a significant amount of snark.

"Not…the entire team," Carina replied in offense.

"Are you two done?" Chuck exhaled, already regretting making the drive up to Stanford. "If I wanted to hear a lot of BS, I'd listen to Devon talk about how UCLA will kick Stanford's ass."

"Hey, the Bruins have owned The Cardinal, Chuck," Devon protested.

"And Arizona State owned UCLA two weeks ago. At least Stanford lost to a ranked team."

Devon scoffed. "From the Big Ten. That just got their butts whipped."

"And how long will this conversation go?" Casey whispered angrily at Chuck. "We have work to do."

Chuck sighed. Although he was relieved to end the incessant argument with Devon over a football team he didn't even follow during school, Casey's constant badgering and Carina's constant flirting with the students was getting quite tiring.

"If you'll excuse us," Chuck said to Devon. "I'm going to take these two on the Chuck Bartowski Memorial Tour. Let me know if any rabid Stanford fans attack you so I can egg them on."

Chuck headed through the quad towards the library with Casey and Carina right behind him.

"Plant a Stanford tree?"

Casey turned to see a student holding a seedling in a square of dirt. "A renewable resource for your children's future?"

Casey stared in complete condescension. "Want to save our environment, huh." He grabbed the flyer the student was carrying and crumpled it. "Take a shower, hippie."

The student looked at Casey in shock as Chuck and Carina pulled him away quickly. "Sorry," Carina replied. "Contract negotiations. He's all stressed out."

They got away from the tables and barbecues set up around the quad. "So glad you remember people have seen you on TV, Case," Chuck said in aggravation. "Who do you root for? Death?"

"Leave the quips to me," Casey hissed.

"The library's this way." Chuck, Casey, and Carina headed across the quad in that direction.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
October 15, 2015  
6:15 PM PDT**_

Sarah knocked on the door to Ellie's and Chuck's apartment. Jimmy was right behind her, loaded down with several containers of food and a bottle of wine to match. It was the one talent where he was better than the rest of the team and couldn't deny it. Sarah knew from his file that he had spent three months undercover as a chef six years ago for a popular Manhattan restaurant trying to collect intel on a rogue French agent. When the team got a rare Thanksgiving off last year, Sarah didn't let him get away without cooking everyone a holiday turkey with all of the trimmings. Given it was Sarah's first Thanksgiving since she was a child…and Jimmy's first Thanksgiving ever…the team wanted to make the most of it. Even Casey turned away from watching football from time to time.

Ellie opened the door. Sarah and Jimmy couldn't miss the despondent look on her face. "How are you doing?" Sarah asked her.

Ellie huffed in frustration. "We did everything we could to bring that man back, but we failed. The autopsy said the man was poisoned. Who would do something like that?"

It piqued the interest of both Sarah and Jimmy but they had to stay in character as actors. "I'm sorry, Doc," Jimmy said. "Hope the food we brought will help you take your mind off of things."

Ellie stood aside to let them in. "I thought I left this crap behind after I finished my ER stint. Gunshot victims, stabbings, domestic violence. Now this comes up."

Jimmy went into the kitchen to organize the meal. "I'm sorry, Ellie," Sarah said gently. "I wish I knew what we could do to make things better."

Ellie waved her hand dismissively. "Not your fault. I've lost patients before; I shouldn't be getting all bent out of shape over…oh, God!"

"What?"

Ellie pointed to the laundry basket. "Those stupid porno shorts Devon owns! I mean CLEARLY Mrs. Heditsian likes to enjoy all the hills and valleys. But really, REALLY, they leave, like, nothing to the imagination!"

"Um, OK…" Sarah said carefully as she sat down on the couch, completely unprepared for Ellie's behavior.

"And 'awesome'! Everything is awesome to him! Toilet paper commercials are awesome as far as he's concerned! Tell me something, Sarah. If everything is awesome and there is no un-awesome, isn't awesome by definition just mediocre?"

Jimmy came out from the kitchen as Ellie continued her tirade. "I can't even remember the last time he did something nice for me! You know, he buys me something for no reason because it's Monday?"

"You just have to talk to him," Jimmy said. "Most guys are clueless when it comes to relationships but they'll always give you what you want if you tell them."

Ellie turned towards Jimmy. "You know what I want?" She pointed to Sarah. "I want what Chuck and Sarah have! THAT'S what I want! The way the two of them look at each other all the time. They are so in love! They make Romeo and Juliet look like brother and sister!"

Ellie flopped onto the couch next to Sarah. "I have known him since the day he was born…obviously. When people would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he would always say the same thing: 'a big boy'. How cute is that?

"And now he IS a big boy. And I tell that he is because he is with a big…" Ellie's eyes drifted down to Sarah's breasts. "…big, big girl."

Sarah looked apprehensively at Jimmy. "Something is very wrong."

"Yeah, I agree," he replied. "I mean, you're physique is more athletic than anything. And thank God for that. You'd look ridiculous walking around like a Kardashian. Not to mention having to drive a spike through your brain to get to their IQ level."

"Not…helping," Sarah hissed.

"Sarah, do me a favor," Ellie said, her eyes becoming more unfocused. "You have hairdressers on set. See what they can do for Chuck. His hair is starting to make funny animal shapes."

"Ellie, do you feel alright?" Jimmy asked. "Do you want us to take you to the hospital?"

She smacked her lips. "Words taste like peaches." She then looked towards the laundry basket again. "Oh, there's a pair of shorts in there you can take with you if you wish. But they might be a bit small on you." She leaned towards Sarah and winked at her. "I hope!"

She began to laugh, making Sarah and Jimmy freak out even more. "Seriously, I love my brother, but what are you doing with him when you've got that staring you in the face every week!" she exclaimed as she pointed at Jimmy. "Man, if it wasn't for being faithful, I'd rip his clothes off and ride his…"

Ellie's eyes rolled upward and she collapsed into Sarah's lap.

"Shit," Jimmy cursed. "I'll call 911."

Sarah extracted herself from under Ellie and laid her gently on the couch. "I'll call Casey and Carina and tell them to get back here with Chuck and Devon."

Jimmy pulled out his smartphone, which started beeping incessantly. "Hang on. I'm picking up radio signals around here."

"From where?"

"Let me narrow the band," he replied as he made the adjustments to the program on his phone. He then walked towards Ellie. The closer he got, the stronger the signal became. Finally, he held the phone by her ear.

"The signal's coming from her; something by her ear is burying the needle."

Sarah brushed Ellie's hair back from her neck and found an anomalous piece of skin behind her ear. She pulled at it gently and looked at it in shock.

"A radio transmitter," she said.

Jimmy's look matched hers. "Whoever poisoned Ellie's patient must be going after her now."

"But why?"

Jimmy threw his hands up. "I don't know, but we better get everybody back here now."

Sarah dialed Casey's number. "Casey, we have a…I can't hear you!"

Sarah recoiled from the cacophony of sounds coming from the other end of the phone. "I think they're under attack," she said frightfully.

 _ **Palo Alto, CA  
October 15, 2015  
6:15 PM PDT**_

Chuck, Casey, and Carina made their way up the stairs to the third floor of the library. Chuck found the section where the book should have been, but it wasn't there.

"We're too late," Casey gritted through clenched teeth. "Magnus already has the intel."

Chuck hung his head, upset they went through all of that effort for nothing. But then he remembered playing assassination games with Bryce.

"Hold on a second…"

He slowed down that scene in his mind where Bryce seemed to have found a dart out of nowhere to nail Chuck in the forehead with it, even though Chuck was certain Bryce was out.

He felt underneath the shelf. Then a big grin came across his face. He pulled down the hidden compartment under the shelf and pulled out a CD-ROM.

"Gotcha!" Chuck said.

"The intel," Casey said, suddenly very impressed.

"The book number was just a way to mark the spot for the professor."

"Then we need to get out of here before Magnus realizes the book he has is worthless," Carina said.

She then glanced behind her to see Magnus at the end of the aisle with a pair of hitmen. "Chuck, run! Head for the back door!"

Casey and Carina charged down the aisle after Magnus while Chuck ran in the other direction with the intel. He made it back out to the quad but had several of Magnus' goons in hot pursuit. He ran back and forth through the tailgaters, hoping to lose the men chasing him. He pulled down the banner to plant a Stanford tree, forcing one agent to crash into a table. He ran back towards Awesome's tailgate and ducked under the table, crawling from one end to the other.

Before he could get his bearings, Chuck was roughly pulled to his feet…by Casey. One of Magnus' men came up to them from behind, only to wind up on the receiving end of a vicious elbow by Casey. Another tried to go at them only to receive a spinning back kick to the head from Carina.

"We have to go," Carina said.

"I swear this school has it in for me!" Chuck said.

The three ran into the science building and snuck into the main lecture room. Chuck immediately went to the computer set up under the podium and inserted the disc.

"I need to know why I'm in the Intersect," he said as the disc booted up. "Wait a minute."

Carina looked at the screen. "That's testing data."

"And videotaped interviews. But these are all students."

"They must be students that were recruited into the CIA by Flemming. Ten years' worth!"

"No wonder Magnus wanted it so badly," Casey said. "Foreign governments would pay a fortune for them."

"Look, right here in 2002, it says Bryce Larkin. Bryce joined the CIA our junior year?" Chuck asked.

"That's what he was after," Casey said.

"Wait! There I am in 2003! I never applied to be in the CIA."

"Chuck, get down!" Carina shouted as Magnus and his men entered at the top of the lecture hall and began to open fire. The three ducked behind the teacher's desk. Casey and Carina began to return fire, but they were becoming outgunned very quickly.

"Don't you think this would be a good time for me to wait in the car?" Chuck ejected the CD from the computer. "I have an idea: GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"When I tell you to, run out the side door," Casey ordered. "Protect that disc!"

Carina shot at several beakers on top of the teacher's desk to create a smokescreen. Chuck bolted out the side door as Casey and Carina kept firing away at Magnus and his men.

Chuck ran upstairs to a computer lab on the second floor. He re-inserted the CD and scrolled to the students who were recruited and were currently on the campus. He clicked on the first name he saw and dialed the number listed with his mobile, Glenda Mitchell.

"Hi, is this Glenda Mitchell? We are in the science hall lecture room, and it's an emergency. Bring lots of big guns."

"I'm sorry, but whoever this is, you've got the wrong number," Glenda replied.

Chuck froze; he thought that would work. "Oh, there's a code phrase. Wait! Are you coming to the toga party?"

Glenda immediately hung up and bolted for the science building. Chuck went to the next name on the list. He called name after name, catching students selling Stanford trees, in lecture halls, even tailgating at the game.

"We have a situation. Bring ammunition and anything you need for killing bad guys."

"Are you coming to the toga party?"

"Are you coming to the toga party?"

"Are you coming to the toga party?"

Chuck finished calling everyone on the list currently at Stanford, making sure he asked each one if they were coming to the toga party. He then scrolled back to 2003 and took a look at his name on the list.

He had no idea Magnus was right behind him.

 **~/^\~**

Casey and Carina continued to fire away at Magnus' men, but they were outnumbered and didn't hold the high ground. Casey's phone began to ring.

"Busy right now, Walker," Casey said tersely before hanging up. He checked his Sig Sauer P229. "I've only got two left."

Carina checked her Sig. "I have half a mag."

"Put down your weapons and stand up! Hands where we can see them!" one of Magnus' men shouted.

"I'm going to go for it," Carina said.

"Just like always," Casey replied.

"You up for it?"

"You bet. I hate long goodbyes."

"Ah, that's the Johnny I slept with. All the sophistication of a caveman, but a whole lot of fun. And maybe you can pick better boxer shorts in the next life."

The two stood up, ready to go Butch-and-Sundance, when students started streaming into the lecture hall. All of them were heavily armed.

"Why don't you put your weapons down," Glenda told Magnus' men.

"Someone must have called the cavalry," Casey said in amazement.

"Thank God," Carina replied. "I had only one shot left."

The students were quite pleased to help out their fellow agents. Glenda looked to her right. "Aren't you in Econ with me?"

 **~/^\~**

Chuck barely had time to duck as Magnus fired his crossbow at the computer, shorting it out completely. He crawled across the floor between the computers in a feeble attempt to get away. Magnus walked up to him, took the disc out of Chuck's hand, and aimed his crossbow right between Chuck's eyes.

"Please don't," Chuck begged. "Please don't, please don't, please don't…"

"Don't."

Magnus turned to see a female student fly through the air and drop him with a hard kick to the sternum, knocking him out with a knee to his head.

"You must be Chuck Bartowski," the woman said. "I just got your message. Are you OK?"

"I'm just glad you check your voicemail," Chuck said in profound relief as he picked up the disc.

 **~/^\~**

Casey watched as several agents from the San Francisco office took Magnus and his men away. He dialed Sarah's phone.

"Situation is stable here, Walker," he told her. "What is going on there?"

"We took Ellie to the hospital. She passed out during dinner."

"Told you Slade can't cook worth a rat's ass. He needs a recipe book to boil water."

"She was poisoned. At least that's what we think happened. The patient she lost the other day died of a poison as well. We need all of you to get back here now, including Devon."

"On it. I'll get a plane ready." Casey turned to Carina. "Go get Chuck. I have to find Devon. Ellie's in trouble."

Carina ran out of the lecture hall to find Chuck. This was news she was not accustomed to delivering. She usually left that to Sarah. And given everyone's efforts to keep Chuck's CIA life separate from his family life, this head-on collision of the two worlds would hit especially hard.

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
October 15, 2015  
9:30 PM PDT**_

Chuck looked at his sister, who was still unconscious. Devon sat by the bed holding her hand. The one thing Chuck never wanted to have happen was for his new 'career' to affect his family and friends, and now it had in the worst possible way.

Devon slowly got up and turned to Chuck with welled eyes. "I'm…going to bring her lucky sweater up here. It's in her locker. Can't hurt, right?"

Chuck smiled. "Of course not." The two hugged and Devon left the room.

Chuck sat in the same seat where Devon was. "I'm going to fix this, Ellie. I swear. I know you think I'm just…Chuck, your screw-up little brother. But there's a lot about me you don't know. See I'm…I'm also Chuck, the guy with all these important government secrets in my brain."

He took her hand. "I can make this better. I _will_ make this better. Everything is so different now, Ellie. Everything is so different. I used to be able to come to you and ask your advice about anything. And now my whole life is, like, a lie."

He gently squeezed Ellie's hand, even though she didn't react. He took one more look at the monitor, whose droned beeping only served to increase Chuck's fear. He heard someone gently clear their throat behind him. He turned to see Sarah and Casey waiting outside. He slowly stood and walked out of the room.

"Are you OK?" Sarah asked, gently taking his hand.

"This…this is not what I wanted. How did this happen?"

"We have our best medical team trying to determine the poison they gave to Ellie and work on an antidote."

"Work on it? There's not enough time! She said the guy she found never recovered! She could only have a few hours left!"

"Chuck, we have nothing to go on right now," Casey said. "Carina is pulling the file on Ellie's patient, and Slade is tearing apart her office to see if she was handed anything. But we need a lead and we need it badly."

Carina came running down the hall with a file folder. "OK, Ellie's patient was a Mason Whitney, a high-level programmer. According to Beckman, he had nuclear intel from a top-secret program named Project Sanctuary. The data from the project was embedded onto a computer chip, which disappeared when he did. Whoever finds that chip basically has a skeleton key to all of our nuclear facilities."

She held up a small object. "And this was placed behind his ear. Look familiar?"

Sarah took it and examined it before handing it to Chuck. "The same bug we found on Ellie."

Chuck studied it. "So the bad guy was able to…" He went silent as he had a flash, seeing images of the Colosseum in Rome, a nuclear missile, cash, vials of poisoned being mixed, a set of x-rays, and a clear picture of the bad guy, who was standing on crutches.

"The bad guy's name is Riordan Payne. Used to be an Olympic gymnast, blew out his knee. Now he sells hard-to-find items like nuclear codes to hard-to-find people. Lots of people would like to spend lots of cash on these codes."

Casey took out a box which contained the bug they found on Ellie. "Soundproof box. Don't want Payne to know we're on to him. I'll see if our engineers can reverse the signal and track him."

Chuck was incredulous. "There's no time!" He snatched the box out of Casey's hand and opened it. "Found the codes. Can't believe where Mason Whitney hid them. I'm going to keep them on the lady doctor until we can move them safely."

Casey looked ready to kill Chuck until he realized Chuck just made a brilliant move. "Now Payne's going to come to us. Not bad, Bartowski." He snatched the box back from Chuck. "But do that ever again and I'll kill you."

"Carina, take Chuck down to Ellie's office and help Jimmy find the chip," Sarah said. "Casey and I will set a trap for Payne."

 **~/^\~**

Riordan Payne moved down the hallway, his tracking device having picked up the bug he put on the doctor. He wasn't sure if the doctor had the codes on her, but he had few leads right now. He entered her room to find her asleep on her side. He pulled back the blanket, ready to search for the missing codes.

Sarah's hand shot up and put an armbar on Payne.

"Freeze!" Casey shouted as he entered the room with his gun drawn.

Payne looked undeterred. He threw his other elbow back to knock Sarah away and grabbed the bed, swinging through the air to kick Casey's gun out of his hands. But it gave Sarah enough time to pull out her gun.

"OK, I've got what you want," Payne said, holding up a small green vial. "The antidote to save your doctor friend. Give it to her. She might live. Just trade me for the codes."

He then held up another vial, which was larger and clearly not the same contents as the antidote. "Or I can poison all of you and force you to tell me where you've hidden my codes. And then you'll die, too. Just like the doctor. Your choice."

 **~/^\~**

"Any luck?" Chuck asked as he ran into Ellie's office with Carina right on his heels

"Worst scavenger hunt…ever," Jimmy growled. "I've been through this office a half-dozen times already and can't find anything."

"We're running out of time, Jimmy," Carina said as she started looking as well.

"I know that! But a computer chip can be as small as a fingernail. You can hide it anyplace. I don't have any better way of finding it!"

"My sister's life depends on that chip!" Chuck shouted as he went to Ellie's desk and ripped it open, hoping to find the microchip.

"Chuck, worst case scenario, Sarah and Casey capture Payne and make him give us the antidote," Carina said. "Casey hasn't tortured anybody in months; he'd probably beg us to let him interrogate Payne."

"And what if he doesn't break fast enough? Ellie doesn't have enough time to pin her hopes on Casey, no matter how scary he might be."

Chuck threw the coat rack holding Ellie's lab coat aside to search the shelves. He then saw part of a gold chain fall out of the pocket of the lab coat. He pulled out the chain and saw the locket attached to it. He had a flash, showing a nuclear explosion, Whitney's ID card, and the folder on Project Sanctuary.

"I've got it!" Chuck cried. He sprinted out of the room.

"No, Chuck. Wait!" Jimmy shouted as Carina and he gave chase.

 **~/^\~**

"And then you'll die, too. Just like the doctor. Your choice."

"I found them! I found them!" Chuck shouted as he ran into the room. "The codes were on a necklace. I found them."

He crashed into a cart that knocked Payne over. Payne dropped the vial of poison, which shattered on the floor. The poison filled the air, and all four of them were doused with the truth serum.

Payne grabbed the necklace, knocked Chuck backwards, and ran from the room. Sarah and Casey shook off the shock of being poisoned and took off in pursuit. Payne ran down the hallway, shoving anyone out of the way who blocked his path. He looked back briefly to see Sarah and Casey bearing down on him. As he turned back, he was nailed with a clothesline by Jimmy. He fell to the ground and the vial and his tracking device flew into the air.

"The antidote!" Sarah screamed.

Jimmy ducked down, and Carina pushed off of his back to launch herself into the air. She dove for the antidote and caught it before it hit the ground.

Payne got up and ran. Casey was about to give chase again when Sarah stopped him. "Casey, wait! What about Chuck?"

Sarah took the antidote from Carina and handed it to Chuck as Jimmy retrieved the tracking device. "No, no. This is for Ellie," Chuck said in no uncertain terms.

"No, I'm sorry. There is no debate. It has to be you. You're the Intersect."

"I won't take it knowing Ellie will die without it, and that both of you have been poisoned, too!"

"You're a good person, Chuck, and I respect that," Casey replied. "But I've got a job to do. So take it before I shove it down your throat!"

"OK, OK, fine. I'll do it." Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll pretend to agree to take it then run like hell to my sister's room and make her take it. Why did I just say that out loud?"

"It's the poison; it makes you tell the truth," Sarah replied.

Casey leveled his gun at Chuck. "You do that, I'll give chase, put a gun to your head, and threaten to pull the trigger if you don't take it."

"Would you really shoot me?" Chuck asked.

"No," Casey said, upset the serum called his bluff.

"Yeah, don't waste the bullet. We're already dead! I'm going to save my sister."

Chuck ran down the hallway to Ellie's room and carefully fed her the antidote. Sarah and Casey watched from the window outside. Sarah found it hard to believe they ever considered Chuck to be the enemy. Chuck had more heart than all of the assets she ever encountered put together. And she never met anybody who cared for others as much as he did. It didn't matter to him how important he was to the safety of the country. The thought never even crossed his mind. He wouldn't let his sister die, no matter what the circumstances. And he was more worried about Casey and her than he was about himself, even though all three of them were condemned to death by Payne. Sarah knew that Casey, Carina, and Jimmy would not have given a second thought to giving up their lives for her and she felt the same way about each of them. But Chuck was the exact same way and he didn't even know her a month ago. She was another actress in Hollywood as far as he was concerned that first day. Her instincts that first day were right: there was something special about Chuck. She just didn't realize how special it was.

Chuck exited Ellie's room. "I am so sorry about all of this," Sarah told him.

"It's OK. Hey, it's not all bad," Chuck replied. "At least I don't have to work out my five-year plan again. Streamlined that down to about five hours."

"Nobody's dying today," Casey said, still resolute despite a weakened voice. "We're gonna get those codes and the antidote."

"But how?"

They turned at the sound of someone clearing their throat. Jimmy was behind them waving Payne's tracking device with a raised eyebrow.

"I think we have the answer," Sarah said with a smile.

 _ **Los Angeles, CA  
October 16, 2015  
12:30 AM PDT**_

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey arrived at Payne's apartment complex, having traced the signal from the bug Payne took with him from the hospital. Sarah quickly worked on picking the lock.

"Wait, who is better at this?" Chuck asked quickly.

"I am," Sarah replied.

"She is," Casey admitted. "Damn truth serum."

Sarah got the door open, and the three of them ran to the elevator to get to the penthouse level.

"God, you're so pretty," Chuck said, looking at Sarah. He then turned to Casey. "Casey, your jaw was chiseled by Michelangelo himself."

Casey gave him a weird look. "Thank you."

The elevator arrived, and the three took it to the top floor. Sarah carefully knocked on the door.

"Yes? Who is it?" Payne called out.

"The NSA, CIA, and me, who's a little tougher to explain, but…" Chuck replied.

Sarah shushed him as Casey shot the door lock, taking Chuck and Sarah by surprise. "We all have our skill set," he said with a shrug.

Casey kicked the door in and Sarah and he went in with guns drawn. Payne held his hands up as he walked slowly down the stairs.

"Well, this feels like a scene from the TV show," Payne said calmly. "But I have to believe you know by now the bad guy can win in real life if they know what they're doing. Which I do."

"Casey would rather shoot you in the face than let you get away," Sarah said.

Casey turned to her. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me."

He turned back to Payne. "Where are the codes, you son of a bitch?"

"And where's the antidote?" Sarah added.

Payne smiled. "Well, since I was about to have some myself and would hate to see the show get cancelled, it's only fair I share the antidote with you."

Payne walked over to a table filled with vials. He grabbed four of them and held them out for Chuck, Sarah, and Casey to take.

"Careful there," Casey warned. "I haven't killed anybody for real in a long time and I'm getting hungry."

Payne tipped his vial at the three, and they raised their vials to their lips.

"No, no, no! Wait, wait, wait! Don't, don't, don't!" Chuck shouted in alarm.

"What, did you have a flash?" Sarah asked.

"No, I've just read tons of comic books. And the villain always samples it first."

Sarah and Casey realized Chuck was right and tried to hand their vials back to Payne. Payne leaped forward and knocked Casey's gun out of his hands. He then sent a spinning kick at Sarah to knock her gun down. He backflipped across the penthouse and ended up by the large panoramic windows at the one end.

A loud crash was heard by everyone. Payne turned to see Carina come through the window on a rope and harness. She nailed him with a vertical kick. He staggered back to get away from her and turned…right into Jimmy, who sent a wicked spinning kick to his head that lifted him off the ground. He spun through the air and landed hard on the wooden floor, completely knocked out.

"Flip that, bitch," Jimmy spat at him while training his guns on Payne.

 _ **Los Angeles, CA  
October 16, 2015  
1:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck and Sarah watched quietly as Casey, Carina, Jimmy, and the NSA finished the clean-up and arrest of Riordan Payne. Still under the influence of the truth serum, Payne told them where the antidote and nuclear codes were. They had to be patient, as Payne had only woken up a few minutes ago from Jimmy's vicious kick.

"How come Carina and Jimmy didn't tell us about their plans?" Chuck asked.

"I'd assume they were afraid we'd give them away under the influence of the truth serum," Sarah replied. "At least I hope that was the reason. Otherwise, we're having a long talk in the morning."

"I'm just glad they're on our side."

Sarah nodded. "I agree. I've seen Carina get more vicious than most of the bad guys I've ever encountered. And Jimmy can go from zero to completely insane in two seconds."

An NSA operative walked up to them with two vials of the antidote. Sarah prepared to drink hers.

"Wait a minute," Chuck said.

"What's the matter?" Sarah asked.

"It's just…this will probably be the last chance that I have to know the truth. I…I know you're just doing your job here, but sometimes it feels so real, you know? So, tell me. You and me. Us. Our thing under the undercover thing. Is this ever going anywhere?"

Sarah stared at him. She saw that look again. She knew what he wanted her answer to be, and she would give anything to tell him that. But the events of the past several days proved beyond a doubt she had to put her feelings away in order to keep Chuck alive. As much as she could rely on her team, both as partners and friends, she knew she had to do what was right for the safety of the country.

She looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry, Chuck. No."

She saw his reaction and it hurt her to no end. To make it worse, he was doing whatever it took to put the brakes on his emotions and lock them away. It was painful to witness, particularly from him. She was used to it because of how she grew up, but he didn't deserve this.

"Got it," he said. "Got it. Thank you for being honest. Even though I guess you don't really have a choice in the matter."

Both of them drank the antidote.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
October 16, 2015  
7:15 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked down the hallway and took a peek into Ellie and Awesome's room. Apparently some of the things Ellie told Sarah and Jimmy while under the influence of the truth serum made their way to Devon. The shorts she hated were thrown out, and Devon surprised her with a little heart locket when they got home from the hospital. He gave a little smile. It was so hard to believe less than 24 hours ago, she was fighting for her life. Chuck did what he had to do to save her, and neither Ellie nor Awesome were any the wiser for what happened. But they were happy, and that's what Chuck hoped for.

He went to his room, where Flemming's CD sat on his computer desk. It was the one thing that had gone through his mind since yesterday, apart from Sarah telling him their relationship could only ever be a cover. He wanted to know why Flemming had a file on him but was afraid of what he might find out. He still couldn't understand why Flemming had him kicked out of Stanford nor could he understand Bryce's betrayal.

 _The truth can't hurt much worse than it hurts now_ , Chuck thought to himself.

He put the CD in the drive and scrolled down to his name under the year 2003.

"You're not supposed to be looking at that, Chuck."

Chuck turned in surprise to see Sarah outside of his window. She climbed through the famed 'Morgan entrance' and sat down on Chuck's bed. "That information is top secret."

"I…I have to know, Sarah. I have to know what happened. Why I was in the Intersect and why Bryce betrayed me."

Sarah looked down at the ground. What she was letting Chuck do broke every rule in the book. But after the events of the past several days, she was getting the feeling she needed to know what was on that disc as much as Chuck did.

"OK, Chuck."

Chuck clicked on the file for him. He saw a video showing Flemming in his office talking to the camera.

" _Test Subject 0326, Bartowski. This will be his first interview_."

Flemming called his secretary to let Chuck come into the office. Bryce walked in instead.

" _Bryce…this isn't a good time. I'm waiting for another student."_

" _Chuck Bartowski? He never got your message."_

" _What are you talking about?"_

" _You put Chuck on the CIA recruitment track."_

" _It's not up to me, Bryce. They want him for the Omaha Project."_

Bryce stared in shock. _"But that's a military operation. They'll turn Chuck into…"_

" _I'm required to send all the top test results to the agency."_

" _I want my friend out of this."_

" _He's a perfect candidate. Keywords in his essay responses correlate to 98% of the subliminal images in the exam."_

" _You don't get it. Chuck's a good person. He's got too much heart for this kind of work. He's no operative."_

Sarah remained silent behind Chuck but could feel her emotions boiling to the surface once again. Bryce could not have been more right about Chuck.

" _You can't put him out in the field! He won't survive!"_

Flemming shook his head. _"The agency is not going to let go of a recruit this promising. The amount of information he can retain? The last recruit I heard of that did this well was almost 15 years ago."_

" _And he committed suicide."_ Bryce was livid the organization he joined could be this cruel. _"They're not gonna give him a choice?"_

" _He's in, no matter what."_

Bryce sat back in the chair and thought for a moment. He had one solution, which was a lesser evil than letting Chuck be taken by the government. But not much less.

" _If he cheated on the exam, copied all the answers, then it would invalidate the results, wouldn't it?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Good. Now you're going to help me, Professor."_

Bryce got up from the chair and the interview shut itself off.

Chuck sat back in his chair in complete shock. "Bryce framed me for cheating…to save me? Why didn't he just tell me that to begin with?"

Sarah tried to rein in what she was feeling at that moment, having accepted for the first time she may not have been responsible for driving Bryce away. "He couldn't. They had already recruited him."

"Well, if he had good reason for getting me kicked out, maybe had a good reason to break into the Intersect, too."

Sarah nodded. "Maybe he had a good reason for sending it to you."

Chuck exhaled slowly. "Just wish I could talk to him. It must have tore hin up to not be able to tell me."

Sarah ejected the CD from Chuck's computer. "No one can know about this. For your own safety, OK?"

"Sure," Chuck replied with a significant amount of dejection. "No one would believe me anyway."

Sarah sat down on the bed. She was about to make a bad day even worse, and there was nothing she could do about it. This had been a bad week for everyone, especially Chuck. But she had to do this.

"Chuck, there's one other thing. I'm going to put Jimmy in charge as your primary handler instead of me."

He turned to her a bit wide-eyed. "What, did I do something wrong? If this was about last night…"

"No, it has nothing to do with last night," she replied, which was an out-and-out lie. Fortunately, she was ready for this. "I should have done this from the beginning. You always organize yourself on your team's strengths. Jimmy used to be an Intersect himself. He's our computer expert, he knows what you have to go through more than the rest of us put together. And he's easily one of the best listeners I've ever encountered. He'll do a good job, I promise."

"No, I don't question what he can do. It's just…I'm…"

"It's best for you and for the project," Sarah quickly said. She took the CD and went to the window. "I'll see you later, Chuck."

Chuck watched her exit the apartment and leaned back in his chair. He thought it quite the irony that he now knew why he was kicked out of Stanford yet felt even emptier than that day he left his fraternity for the train ride home.

Outside, Sarah walked over to where Jimmy was waiting for her.

"Did you tell him?" he asked.

She nodded gently. "You're in charge of him now. Do a good job."

"That I promise. I'll bet you're glad you weren't on the truth serum anymore. That would have made the conversation a lot more awkward."

Sarah shook her head. "It wouldn't have mattered. I was trained to resist the effects of Pentothal."

Jimmy looked at her a moment. "Are you OK, kiddo?"

Sarah hung her head. "Bryce got Chuck kicked out of Stanford to keep him from being recruited into Project Omaha."

Jimmy exhaled slowly. "Wow. Good call on his part. I heard of that project while I was still in the holding facility. They almost put me on it. Everybody in that op ended up dead or in a psych ward."

"I just wish…I just wish I knew why Bryce left. Why he couldn't face me."

"I…don't really have an answer. But I know it wasn't because of you. It never was. You don't walk away from someone like Sarah Walker unless you have a damn good reason to do it."

"And yet I just did that to Chuck. He didn't deserve what I just did. He doesn't deserve to have to go through this."

"You did what you had to do to protect him, what Agent Walker should have done. Unfortunately, what's right for Agent Walker to do isn't what's right for Sarah. And that's a person who deserves all the good fortune that she can get."

Sarah tried to muster a smile but couldn't bring herself to do it. Between finding out about what Bryce did and having to pull herself away from Chuck, her emotions were ready to spill over.

"Is the teddy bear available?" she said softly.

"Always," Jimmy replied with a warm smile.

Sarah gave a little laugh as Jimmy put his arms around her. She rested her head on his shoulder as a few tears rolled down her cheeks.


	8. Uncomfortable Moments

_Hello. I tried my best to get this chapter out as quickly as possible because all of us know what was next in the Chuck timeline. It took a lot of work, but hopefully I was able to make the plotline work without having Lou around to make Sarah jealous and for Casey to interrogate. Actually, it turned out she was still of great use for the chapter, even though she wasn't a love interest for obvious reasons._

 _There was a lot of controversy in the last chapter about what Bryce did when he tanked Chuck's test scores and got him kicked out of Stanford. There were a number of people who thought Bryce had no right to do that. But this was my take. Had Bryce not done that, wouldn't he be saying it was OK for the CIA to do the exact same thing? The CIA was going to take Chuck, regardless of what Chuck wanted to do. I don't think it's a matter of right vs. wrong; it was a matter of more wrong vs. less wrong. Neither decision was a good one. But Bryce (and Chuck, obviously) were in a 'damned if they do, damned if they don't' situation._

 _I admit to flying very blind in this chapter. Please let me know if how I wrote it worked out for you. Those of you who had problems with some of the things I did know I always try to explain my line of thinking regarding whatever I wrote (even to that one person who went on a psychotic rant about OCs a few chapters back). So don't be afraid to tell me if something didn't work for you. I'm not perfect; not even remotely close. But leaving reviews knows the story has you engaged._

 _ **IMPORTANT NOTE** : There are a few curse words in this chapter, including one f-bomb, so I apologize if you don't like seeing that._

 _And I promise I'll put Chuck and Sarah together faster than the show did. Just not in this chapter. :-D_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Helsinki, Finland  
November 19, 2015  
2:00 AM EET**_

A cargo container glided slowly through the air on its way to a stack of other cargo containers. The longshoreman supervising the move couldn't help but be nervous, seeing not only a team of heavily-armed men around him, but having to carry an automatic weapon as well.

"HEY! _Huolellinen idiootti_! (Careful, you idiot!)" the man shouted as he heard the container scrape against another container. " _Tämä asia on elää!_ (This thing is live!)" The crane operator made the necessary corrections and the container slid easily down into the group of six for which it was meant.

The longshoreman breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was he troubled by the weapons being carried around in the area, but the container was peppered with biohazard symbols and special care instructions on the bill of lading.

Thankfully, he didn't know about the large circular drum inside with the countdown clock on it, currently showing just over 72 hours and 58 minutes.

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
November 19, 2015  
12:30 PM PST**_

Lance McCall picked the lock to the back door of the Home Made store. Jen Burton was in there somewhere, undoubtedly trying to avoid the very large number of cartel sicarios who trapped her in the store. Jill Garrett had stolen the necessary intel to put the boss in jail until he was old and gray. Duke Forrester airlifted her out of the danger zone, but Lance refused to leave Jen behind despite her protests.

He got the door open and immediately fired his pistol. It was the right move, given there were two cartel soldiers waiting for him. He slipped inside, retrieving the automatic weapons of the two men he shot. He made it about ten steps before four more men opened fire on him. He dove behind a display vanity as the four men moved towards him. He rolled out from the vanity and fired away, taking all four men out.

He quickly checked his smartphone to trace Jen's GPS tracker. She was at the opposite end of the store near the hardware section. He started to move in that direction when he spotted three more coming at him. As gunfire went off in the distance, no doubt Jen trying to hold off more assassins, Lance pulled a full-length mirror from its display and leaned it against a large warehouse shelf. He then took two steps forward, and the men saw his image in the mirror. They fired away and the mirror shattered. Before they could figure out what was going on, Lance opened fire and shot the three.

He reached the long aisle that ran the length of the store. At least a dozen sicarios were standing around ready to kill him. He looked to his right and saw a floor cart. He quietly moved it into position in the center of the aisle, grabbed a hold of it, and started to sprint. As the first two men were ready to shoot, Lance dove onto the cart, laid down on his back, and opened fire with the automatic weapons he confiscated. The first two men fell and Lance kept firing away as the cart rolled down the aisle. He finally crashed into a display of storage crates, having gotten the first ten men. The last two came at him, but Lance pulled out his Glock, fired four shots at the first one, rolled off the cart, and fired four shots at the other man coming from the opposite direction.

He got up and checked his gun. He only had a quarter-clip left. He looked back and grabbed the rolling cart again. He sent it towards two of the men who had Jen pinned down, knocking both of them over. He then ran and dove behind the rack of power tools where Jen was hiding. He watched her fire her last shots.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. Pack more ammo!" Lance exclaimed.

"Hey, you know how many guys I took out in the last ten minutes?" Jen angrily retorted. "Less people die in a Michael Bay film!"

Lance fired his final four shots. "Now I know you're stressed out. You're starting to sound like me. It's bad enough we seem to be re-enacting the final shootout from _Mr. & Mrs. Smith_."

"What?"

"That movie? Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? They played a married couple who were really assassins that were assigned to kill each other? The final shootout was in a home improvement store like this one. And they got together for real while filming."

"Let's hope this turns out as well for us as it did for them."

"At this point, I'd settle for how it turned out for Jennifer Aniston," Lance quipped.

"Don't move," a rather imposing figure in a sharp suit ordered. Jen slowly put her hands up, and Lance dropped his gun. It didn't take a high IQ to figure out this man was _el jefe_ for the cartel.

"Think of how much power I'll wield now," El Jefe said. "The man who killed Jen Burton and Lance McCall."

Lance tapped Jen's back twice and reached behind him with his left hand. Jen ducked down as Lance wrenched a cordless nail gun from the display. He rolled over Jen, held in the safety, and fired at El Jefe. Three nails found the middle of the man's chest and he collapsed to the ground.

Jen turned to Lance in relief. "Very nicely done," she said as she took his face in her hands and gave him a kiss.

She kept a tight grip on his face. "But I don't want to hear a single bad joke from you. Not one bad pun. Do I make myself clear?"

Lance held up his hands in surrender. "Very clear."

"Good," she replied and gave him another kiss.

"Oh believe me, you nailed it," Lance said, leaving Jen to growl.

"CUT!" Director Allison Brown shouted to end the scene.

"Ugh," Sarah replied in disgust, pushing Jimmy's face away so hard, the back of his head hit the concrete floor.

"OK, I know I claim to have a thick-headed skull, but I'd appreciate you just taking my word for it," Jimmy ground out as his head throbbed from what Sarah did.

Sarah got up and marched over to Allison. "Who wrote this crap?"

"What are you talking about?" Allison asked.

"This!" Sarah grabbed a script and waved it around angrily. "Jen and Lance get caught in a home improvement store? Lance takes out the bad guy with a nail gun? And don't even get me started on those bad one-liners we had to suffer through!"

Allison held her hands up in confusion. "What is your problem, Sarah? You know this is what the show is about. Action scenes, romance, the occasional bit of drama, but comedy is a big part of it. Your character is the boss, so she has to play it straight-up. Duke gets to be the sarcastic one, Jill gets the innuendos, and Lance is the comic relief. That's how we've been doing it all this time."

Sarah dropped the script back on the table. "Sometimes I wonder why I'm still doing this shit."

She stormed off to her dressing room, much to everyone's surprise. No one had ever seen Sarah act like this. She was always friendly to the crew, from the directors all the way down to the P.A.s and extras. To see her acting as she was proved quite jarring to everyone in the studio.

Carina followed her to her dressing room, having watched the scene they just filmed with the rest of the crew. She threw open the door and slammed it shut.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Carina demanded.

"I'm just tired, O.K.?" Sarah replied in anger.

"Bullshit! I have never seen you treat anybody the way you just treated Jimmy and Allison. Even when Bryce walked out on you! You still have a job to do, or have you forgotten what all of us do for a living?"

"I know I have a job to do! That's all I hear about these days, this fucking job! Honestly, I'm getting sick and tired of this job!"

Carina exhaled. "Look, it's no secret you like Chuck. And I don't care how much it hurts either of you, you still made the right call. The problem is now you're acting like you've not only closed that door, you've dead bolted it shut. You have to back off for now to protect him, but that doesn't mean you have to back off forever."

There was a gentle knock on the door. Sarah rolled her eyes and nodded her head, and Carina went to open it. Jimmy stood outside with an ice pack on the back of his head.

"Is everything OK?" he asked quietly.

"Where's Chuck?" Sarah demanded.

"He wasn't watching us film?" Carina shook her head in response. "Aaah, hell."

"You're supposed to be keeping an eye on him," Sarah spat at him.

"How am I supposed to watch him when we're filming a scene?" Jimmy grabbed the walkie-talkie from the charger on Sarah's table. "Has anybody seen Bartowski?"

"He's not in the studio," someone replied.

"Dammit," Jimmy said to himself before turning the walkie-talkie back on. "Please have my car ready at the south entrance. Thanks."

He put the walkie-talkie back in the charger. "I'll find him. I already have a few educated guesses on where he went."

"You better find him," Sarah said with a scowl on her face. Jimmy left the room with entire posture slumped.

"Christ, if it isn't one it's the other," he muttered to himself as he walked to his car.

Carina turned back to Sarah and the fire in her eyes matched the color of her hair. "You have got to be kidding."

"What?"

"You slam Jimmy's head on the concrete, he comes in to see if you're OK without even asking for an apology and you yell at him for not knowing where Chuck is?"

Carina shook her head. "You want to be upset at what you did to Chuck, fine. That I can understand. But stop taking it out on other people. Jimmy just went through all of that but he still said 'please' and 'thank you'. We're here to help you. I don't need you to appreciate it, but could you at least stop attacking everybody over it?"

Carina opened the door and walked out of Sarah's dressing room. Sarah buried her head in her hands. Carina was absolutely right that she was upset and even more correct that she was taking out on people who didn't deserve it.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
November 19, 2015  
1:30 PM PST**_

Chuck dragged himself into the Buy More. He needed to get away from the studio. He completed all of the necessary work required for the next two episodes, but he didn't watch the filming like he normally did. Sarah telling him they couldn't have a future together still hurt a month later, and he didn't think he could handle watching a scene that required Jen and Lance to kiss. Not that he blamed Jimmy: Sarah was right in that Jimmy would try to help him, but Chuck just couldn't open up about what happened. He didn't see the point. The only pleasure he got over the last few weeks was when Jimmy and he rigged Awesome's home and work computers so that, whenever he tried to open a file or go to a web page, he had to see a clip of that spectacular catch by Francis Owusu for Stanford over his beloved Bruins.

"Hey, buddy," Morgan said as he slid up next to his best friend. "You look a little down there."

Chuck nodded, although he found it hard to find the strength to do even that. "Sarah and I have been…going through some problems." Yet another lie he had to tell. To realize the woman to whom he had grown attached was not interested in him was far beyond just a problem. "I just needed to take a break from the set."

"Whoah, dude. No, that can't happen. You can't have problems with a girl like Sarah. Whatever they are, you fix them. You win the lottery, you don't throw out the ticket! There are no Sarahs in the real world, let me tell you. You will not do better than her. Please, on behalf of all losers like me that you've given this small sliver of hope in finding someone, do NOT give this girl up!"

"Morgan," Chuck said in exhaustion. This was not what he needed. "It's more…complicated than that, OK?"

"What's complicated?" Morgan was incredulous. "Nice guy meets hot girl, hot girl falls for nice guy, THE END! It doesn't get any simpler than that!"

 _More like…guy gets supercomputer in his head, guy meets hot girl, hot girl is actually a secret agent, hot girl and her co-workers saves guy's life over and over, hot girl pretends to be guy's girlfriend, hot girl confesses under truth serum she's not interested in guy,_ Chuck thought, making himself even more depressed.

Jimmy entering the store didn't help one bit.

"Chuck, what have you been doing?" Jimmy asked him, trying to keep the anger out of his voice not only from Chuck wandering off on his own but also being ripped a new one by Sarah over it.

"I just needed some time to myself, OK?" Chuck angrily replied.

Jimmy exhaled. "Look, I get that. But this isn't a normal relationship. If the paparazzi catch you without Sarah on your hip, it'll be a feeding frenzy and no story you tell will stop them."

He looked around the store before pulling Morgan to the side and handing him a business card. "Morgan, can you do me a favor? If you see Chuck anywhere besides his apartment and he's alone, give me a call. And until I can get there, don't leave his side. At least then we can sell the story that he still likes to hang out with his childhood friends. You don't want the paparazzi eating your best friend alive, right?"

"No, Jimmy. It makes total sense, man. It sounds like fun to be in public but I see what you're getting at. But I think we have a problem."

Morgan pointed to the doors. Several reporters from _TMZ_ , _Inside Edition_ , _Dish Nation_ , and other tabloid shows and newspapers started streaming into the store.

"Son of a bitch," Jimmy said. "Where's the back door?" he asked Morgan.

"That way," Morgan replied, pointing to the back.

"OK, let's get Chuck out of here."

Morgan and Jimmy grabbed Chuck and they walked towards the back. Passing by the wall of TVs, they discovered they were too late.

 _Is it over for Charah?_ The headline was splashed across the screen on a tabloid TV show.

Jimmy growled loud enough to scare a lion. The tabloid show had a video of a depressed Chuck in the Buy More. "Goddamn TMZ. They've got less tact than Donald Trump at a women's rally."

"How the hell could they get a video that quickly?" Morgan asked in complete shock.

Jimmy looked around. "Someone must have filmed Chuck with their smartphone and sent it in. Find out who that is, Morgan. I'll call for a car to get us out of here. I parked in front of the store, so that's not an option. Is there anywhere we can hide after we get out the back door?"

"There's a deli across the alley between the Buy More and the Large Mart. They may not see you if you come in that way."

"Better than nothing. Thanks, Morgan."

Jimmy grabbed Chuck and they went out the back entrance of the Buy More. Jimmy was relieved to discover Morgan was right: the paparazzi was looking for Chuck in the store and not paying attention to the alley. The two ducked into Lou's Gourmet Italian Deli. Only a couple of customers were in the store, and they seemed to take Jimmy's presence in stride. _Clearly not fans of the show_ , he thought.

"Chuck, it's good to see you!" a short but very attractive brunette called out from behind the counter.

Chuck stared blankly for a moment before his memory kicked in. "Lou, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. Very busy of course. But you must be in a better mood these days."

"Really?" Chuck was confused. "What makes you say that?"

"You're out there dating again, and dating Sarah Walker. Remember I came into the Buy More three months ago and you fixed my phone? You were awesome. I can't live without that phone and you recovered all of the data on it. I was going to ask you out but you were all depressed over someone who had dumped you."

Chuck nodded as he remembered Lou coming into the Buy More. "Jill."

"That will teach me not to be more forward," Lou lamented. "Now you're off the market again."

Chuck shrugged in surrender. If only he knew about this three months ago. Or could tell her what his relationship with Sarah was now.

"Yeah, things have been better since I started dating Sarah," Chuck lied. To Jimmy's credit, he kept his mouth shut.

"I'm going to make you a special sandwich, Chuck, as a thank-you for fixing my phone. Turkey, Muenster, and egg bread. It's a sandwich I came up with. It's delicious."

"Uh, thanks." Chuck felt a smile come to him for the first time in a couple of weeks. Not that Jimmy helping him rig Awesome's computer wasn't fun, but his depression couldn't exactly be cured with a spectacular catch.

Chuck and Jimmy took a seat at a table. "God, it's like grammar school all over again," Jimmy grumbled.

Chuck raised an eyebrow. "You mean you were ignored in school, too?"

"Actually, no. They used to smack me in the nose with a rolled-up newspaper and stick my face in dog crap."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, so you can imagine what the boys did if the girls were that cruel."

"OK, and I thought I was having problems. Depression officially over."

Jimmy laughed. "Glad my misery could help. Hey, it could be worse. The majority of Casey's fan mail is from senior citizens who get depressed when _Dancing with the Stars_ ends each season."

"That helps even more," Chuck replied with a grin.

Lou brought Chuck's sandwich over. "Oh. Sorry, Mr. Slade. I should have asked you if you wanted a sandwich."

"I'm OK. Thanks, though." Jimmy took a look around at some of the pictures on the wall, many of which were autographed pictures of celebrities. "Wow, Robert DeNiro has eaten here?"

Lou nodded. "He absolutely loves the pastrami sandwich. He said only a couple of places in New York are better. That reminds me, do you have any autographed pictures I can put up on the wall?"

"I'm sure I can scare one up," Jimmy replied with a smile.

"Wonderful. Do you think you can get Sarah's, Carina's, and John's?"

The smile disappeared in an instant. "So, you want everyone _else's_ picture…and not mine."

"That would be so cool! Thanks!" Lou walked away. It was all Chuck could do to keep his laughter in.

"Christ, if I wanted this kind of abuse, I'd look in a mirror," Jimmy said in disgust, now more depressed than when Chuck walked into the Buy More, and Chuck couldn't hold in the laughter anymore.

"Sorry," Chuck said in shame.

"Not your fault. I mean, we should be apologizing to you, but a thousand apologies still won't make up for what you've had to go through. All I can ask is that you be patient with us. You just saw what would happen if you went out on your own like that without Sarah. We'll have to film you two together on a daily basis until the tabloids back off."

Chuck shook his head. "I just don't know if I can do it."

"You can. Look, this isn't about you. Don't think for one minute it is. I've known her for two years, and Case and Carina have known her a lot longer. She didn't have a good childhood. Spies rarely do. And trust may as well be a four-letter word to us. She has to concentrate on her work and anything beyond that has to be on the back burner. But I promise, she's a good person. I almost lost my job for her last year."

"Really?"

"You remember those rumors that Kanye West almost got into a fight with a Hollywood star?" Chuck nodded. "That star was me. Sarah and I presented at the MTV Video Music Awards last year. Neither of us wanted to do it, but we had to promote the show and keep the revenue coming in to fund missions. Anyway we finish, Sarah goes off to do an interview, and Kanye launches into this five-minute rant backstage saying I was a talentless hack and a disgrace to the city of Chicago. Imagine that? That arrogant prick saying I'M a disgrace? Not five seconds after he was done, he demanded I give him Sarah's number because he wanted to, and I quote, 'tap that bitch'. I lost it. If it wasn't for his security, he would have ended up in the hospital. But they grabbed me, and he ran like a little bitch. I guess the look on my face made him piss his pants. He couldn't go public with being threatened because then people would find out why. Good thing, too, because I probably would have been sent back to an underground facility again."

"Wow."

"My point is, I didn't care he went on that tirade about me. But the second he insulted Sarah, I went after him like Sean Penn goes after photographers. Nobody talks about Sarah like that. And had Casey or Carina been there instead of me, they would have reacted the same way. There isn't anything we wouldn't do for her because there isn't anything she wouldn't do for us."

Chuck exhaled as he took another bite of his sandwich. "I don't know. I have to stand there and act like everything is OK with Sarah when it's not."

Jimmy hung his head. "I know. I wish there was something I could tell you to make this better, but we went down this path and we can't turn back now. If it's any consolation, everybody thinks you're doing a great job, even Casey. You've helped crack cases no other agent has. And you certainly have more heart than any asset we've had to protect in the past. Hell, you have more heart than all of the assets we've protected put together. That makes us well-motivated to keep you safe and get you back to a normal life. And after this is all over, who knows. Sarah shut the door on you now, but maybe it isn't locked permanently. I certainly wouldn't bet against you."

"Thanks," Chuck said with a bit of a smile.

"You're a good guy, Chuck. Never become a studio exec."

Morgan walked into the deli and sat with Chuck and Jimmy. "Mmm, nice sandwich," he said and took the other half of Chuck's sandwich without permission.

"We could…order you one," Jimmy said, a little confused Morgan just did that.

"It's OK," Chuck said. "He does that all the time."

"What did you find out?" Jimmy asked.

"Well, there were no customers in the store when Chuck was there, so that rules out someone from the outside," Morgan said.

"So it was an employee," Jimmy concluded. "But every one of them probably has a smartphone. We'll have to pull the security footage and see who it might have been."

"You may not need to. Everybody in the store adores Chuck. And even the ones who don't wouldn't pull a BS move like this. Except for one."

Jimmy furrowed his brow in confusion before figuring it out.

"Harry Tang," all three of them said at the same time.

Chuck looked out the window. "Well, speak of the devil," he said as he noticed Harry Tang about twenty feet from the window of the deli and aiming his smartphone camera at Chuck.

"Should have guessed he would do something like that," Morgan said in disgust.

"Want me to take care of him?" Jimmy asked.

Chuck's eyes went wide. "No, no, that's not needed. You don't have to go the full Kanye on him."

Jimmy shook his head. "I didn't mean that way. But I think I can arrange it so he's no longer a problem for everybody at the Buy More. Morgan, I take it everybody would be OK if Harry Tang didn't work there anymore?"

"OK? They'd be ecstatic!"

"I'll come up with something." Jimmy's phone beeped, and he took a look at the message. "The car's here. We can go out the back without being spotted."

Chuck and Jimmy got up. "Thanks, Morgan," Chuck said.

"Hey, anything for my friend," he replied.

"And thanks for helping us out today," Jimmy added. "Remember what I told you earlier."

"Yeah, Jimmy. No sweat. You can count on me. But hey, do you think you can get Carina's autograph for me? I mean, we had a bit of a moment when she saved my life in the studio…"

Jimmy rolled his eyes in frustration. "It's like I'm Rodney Dangerfield."

Chuck gave a little laugh as he walked towards the back of the store. He passed by a poster for a new hotspot called Club Ares. He stopped as he saw images of a fish, loading docks, security directives from Homeland, smuggling routes, and the bio on the man listed as the owner of the club: Stavros Demetrios.

He turned to find Lou. "Lou, who is Stavros Demetrios?" he asked while pointing at the poster.

Lou looked at the poster and frowned. "He's my ex. He owns the Club Ares. Why? Do you know him?"

"No, not really. No."

"Good. You don't want to. He thought I was dating some guy and he trashed his car. Threatened to kill him." Chuck bristled at the thought. "Believe me, the last thing you want is that lunatic swimming around in your head."

Chuck laughed nervously. "Thanks for the advice. Take care."

Chuck walked quickly out the back of the deli and Jimmy had to run to keep up with him. They got into the back of the Lincoln Continental, which thankfully had tinted windows so the paparazzi couldn't see into the vehicle.

"What's going on?" Jimmy asked him.

"I…just had a flash," Chuck replied. "A pier with shipping containers. Smuggling routes, does the name Stavros Demetrios sound familiar?"

"If Stavros is related to Yari Demetrios, then I'd say that's a big problem. Driver, take us to base."

Chuck was nervous after his flash, and Jimmy suddenly going all-business didn't cure that. "We'll talk to Graham and Beckman when we get back." He then got on his phone to send the rest of the team to the hotel.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
November 19, 2015  
3:00 PM PST**_

"Stavros Demetrios, a handsome playboy," Beckman began as Chuck and the team listened in over videoconference. He owns and operates a number of L.A. nightclubs."

"I don't think he's that handsome," Chuck said with a shrug.

"He's the son of Yari Demetrios, the shipping magnate," Graham added. "We have intel that a volatile package is coming to Los Angeles. The cargo itself is time-sensitive which, knowing the Demetrios family's ties to the Middle East, could mean a weapon."

"Chuck, we'll need you to get as close to Stavros as possible and see if you flash on anything related to the shipment," Beckman said.

"We're going to go into the club tomorrow tonight for the opening," Sarah told Chuck. "Given our cover as famous actors, we should be able to make our way into the VIP areas of the club. It will also sell to the paparazzi that we're still together and nothing is wrong."

"And while I keep an eye on things in the van, Miller will join the two of you," Casey continued. "Nightclubs are her specialty, as is getting any guy away from any location she wants. Slade will break into the offices upstairs at the club and see if he can find any information that way. Understood?"

"Perfectly," Chuck replied with little-to-no enthusiasm. "It's just…"

"What?" Casey demanded.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

Casey and Carina both looked at Chuck. They felt a bit of sympathy for him…relative to the microscopically small amount of sympathy they typically felt for any asset…given what Sarah did to him several weeks ago. They couldn't hate Sarah for what she did because it was the best option to keep Chuck safe. But that didn't mean it made their lives as Sarah's team or her friends any easier.

 _ **Club Ares – Los Angeles, CA  
November 20, 2015  
9:00 PM PST**_

The limousine waited for other limos to move away from the entrance. Casey was in a surveillance van two blocks away from the club, having hacked into the club's security system a few hours ago with Jimmy's help, who patiently waited on the roof of the building to rappel down into the offices on the top floor at the back of the club.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Sarah asked Chuck.

"Ready," Chuck replied tersely, more tersely than he meant to. Fortunately, both Sarah and Carina ignored it.

Carina held out a box to the two of them. "Earwigs."

Chuck and Sarah each grabbed an earwig and inserted them into their ears. Carina did the same with the remaining earwig. Chuck couldn't believe what Carina was wearing. If the transparent silk blouse, skinny jeans, and six-inch heels she wore couldn't draw a crowd, nothing would. Sarah's attire wasn't nearly as provocative, but it was sensual enough for the place they were going. Clearly she was dressing just to be noticed but not enough to go overboard. She left that to Carina.

"Comm check," Casey said over their earwigs.

"Check," both Sarah and Carina said. They then looked at Chuck, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world right now, even in Jeff and Lester's van.

Sarah nudged him and he finally took the hint. "Check, Casey. Sorry."

"You'll do fine," Carina told him. The second we get in there, Stavros will probably bust a nut trying to get to us. You get invited to the VIP room while I keep things jumping out on the floor, and then you two plant the bug on him."

"Got it," Chuck replied, this time able to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

The limousine made it to the entrance and a security guard opened the door. Carina stepped out of the limousine first and waved to the crowd, not a few of which shouted a few catcalls and gave a few wolf whistles. Sarah exited next and got the same reception. She then reached in and took Chuck's hand. She pulled him out of the limousine and Chuck waved timidly to the crowd.

"Smile, moron," Casey said. "Everybody's watching you."

Chuck put a smile on his face as Sarah stood on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Several reporters tried to throw questions at them regarding their relationship as they entered the club, but all three ignored them.

As they predicted, Stavros Demetrios walked up to them, although he looked like he ran to them and tried to cover it up.

"Good to see you, Sarah!" Stavros exclaimed. "I'm so honored you could be here tonight. And Carina, you look even hotter in person than you do on the show!"

Stavros took Carina's hand and kissed it, which made Carina smile. _This will be easy_ , she thought.

Stavros then turned to Chuck. "And you must be Charles Carmichael," he said, shaking Chuck's hand. "Or should I just call you the luckiest guy in the world?"

"Ha ha ha," Chuck replied nervously as he looked at Sarah, who smiled broadly at what Stavros said.

"Come on! Let's go to the VIP area. It's all on me tonight."

"I'm going to hit the dance floor," Carina told Stavros. "Let out some stress."

"Oh, not a problem. Just like your character on the show, eh?"

"You could say that," Carina replied, which gave Chuck a bit of a smile.

 _Stavros doesn't know the half of it_ , he thought to himself.

Chuck and Sarah followed Stavros to the VIP room while Carina hit the dance floor, much to the appreciation of the crowd, and grabbed the first hot guy she saw.

~/^\~

Jimmy carefully peered over the roof in the back of the club. He took a laser measuring device, which gave him the distance between the roof and the window ledge to the offices. He adjusted the rope on his harness to the correct length.

"The spotlights have a fifteen-second sweep pattern," Casey told him. "You have a five-second window to get to the ledge and ditch the ropes."

"OK, give me a five-second countdown for the jump," Jimmy replied.

Casey watched the monitor, waiting for the spotlights to get to the correct point in both of their sweeps.

"And five…four…three…two…one…mark," Casey told Jimmy, who jumped off of the roof, twisted around so he faced the building, and stopped just below the window. He grabbed onto the ledge, and Casey pushed a button on his computer. Jimmy's harness disengaged and he hung onto the side of the building. He took out a small laser device and cut a hole in the window. He then pulled himself up and inside the offices.

He placed a USB drive on the computer, which activated a program to copy all of the files onto it. While that went on, Jimmy stared going through the file cabinets to see if there was any paperwork that could be of value.

~/^\~

Stavros poured three shots out of a bottle for Chuck, Sarah, and himself.

"Yamas!" he said as he clinked shots with Chuck and Sarah. "That's aged ten years in oak. Can you taste that?"

Chuck took a sip and coughed from the strong liquor. "Uh, yes. I think I did…I think I did taste it. Although that…that also could have been a piece of my liver."

Stavros laughed heartily and grabbed Chuck. "I love this guy!"

"Now you know what I see in him," Sarah replied with a broad smile.

"I had that with my last girlfriend. Lou. Beautiful girl. Fiery Italian, though. I took her to Mykonos and she threw a lamp at my head. I still have the scar."

He rolled up his sleeve to show Chuck a scar. "I thought you said she threw it at your head," Chuck said.

"She did. The scar was from the make-up sex," Stavros replied with a wink to Chuck before gesturing to Sarah. "Boy, if she's half as scary in real life as she is on the show, Chuck, you're in big trouble." Stavros gave a leering look to Sarah. "But what a way to go!"

"Get back on topic, Bartowski," Casey growled from the van.

"So, uh…Stavros," Chuck began. "You're in the club game?"

"Don't worry about it," he replied. "You seem nervous! Relax!"

"I'm…I'm not," Chuck replied anxiously as Stavros massaged the back of his neck.

"Oooh, you've got a small neck, huh? Like a chicken?"

That made Chuck even more anxious and Sarah started to tense up.

"He does have a small neck," Casey muttered with a laugh.

"Have you ever snapped a chicken's neck, Chuck?" Stavros asked, his hand still on Chuck's neck.

"Can't say that I have," he replied, getting more scared by the minute.

"It's much easier than you think."

Sarah immediately stood and grabbed Chuck's hand. "I want to go dance. Come with me, Chuck."

Before Chuck could answer, Sarah pulled him out of the VIP room.

"What are you doing?" Chuck asked her. "We didn't plant the bug!"

"I'm not risking you any further with this guy."

"What? You're afraid of Hugh Hefner's ugly grandkid? You know, it's bad enough we have to pretend like this but could you at least not question my ability to handle myself every five seconds? OK, I've had a few moments I'm not proud of but I'm getting better!"

"Stay in character, you two!" Casey shouted over their earpieces.

Sarah pulled Chuck to the side and away from the crowd. "My first priority is to protect you. I'm not going to risk you on the off chance we may get some intel! Jimmy is upstairs, so we get our intel from whatever he finds!"

"I just can't believe…" Chuck stopped mid-sentence as he spotted Yari Demetrios. His intersect kicked in with the entire file on Yari, who walked by him without even stopping.

"Casey, Yari Demetrios just walked in. He's heading for the VIP area."

"You have to get the bug over there, now!" Casey commanded.

"Casey, if we go over there now, our cover is blown," Sarah replied. "We get Chuck out of here and hope Jimmy struck paydirt."

"Oh, so suddenly I can't do the job you're making me do?" Chuck was livid. He grabbed the bug out of Sarah's hand. "Watch this."

Chuck turned on his heel and headed towards the VIP room. "Chuck!" Sarah shouted but he didn't respond.

Chuck walked purposefully towards the VIP room but got bumped by a couple of partygoers. The bug fell out of his hand and landed in front of an amplifier. A very loud screech went through everyone's earpiece, making everyone growl in pain, including Jimmy. Several guards in the hallway outside of the offices heard him and went towards the office doors with weapons drawn.

"Slade, heat sensors show movement outside of the office," Casey said. "Get out of there now!"

Chuck's eyes widened. He couldn't believe his gaffe. He quickly grabbed the bug and surreptitiously tossed it onto the tray of a server who was going into the VIP area. He returned to Sarah, who was waiting with Carina, and the three quickly left the club.

Jimmy grabbed the USB drive out of the computer and went to the safe in the room. He attached a device in it to open the lock. While that did its job, he took some of the papers in the file drawers and threw them around.

"Slade, what the hell are you doing?" Casey demanded.

"I'm trying to make it look like a robbery so they don't get suspicious," he spat.

"They catch you and they WILL be suspicious. Get the hell out of there!"

The safe clicked, and Jimmy quickly opened it. He took three stacks of $100 bills and stuffed them inside of his flak jacket. He went to the window and reached for the rope that Casey lowered to him. Right then, the door burst open and one of the guards fired. Jimmy jumped from the window and fell three stories. He landed on the lid of a dumpster and broke through it, falling inside of it. The three guards looked out the window to see Jimmy in the dumpster and exited the office to get downstairs quickly.

Jimmy pulled himself up in extreme pain and rolled out of the dumpster. His shoulder was separated and he was covered with every little bit of garbage imaginable. Casey pulled the surveillance van up to him and opened the door.

"A little down in the dumps there, Slade?" Casey asked with a smirk.

If looks could kill, the expression on Jimmy's face would be Ted Bundy. "I rappel down a building, break into an office, almost get shot, fall three stories into a dumpster, separate my shoulder, get covered in shit…AND THAT'S THE BEST LINE YOU COULD COME UP WITH!? !?"

Casey pulled back a bit. Even he knew that was over the line. "I'll think of a better line."

"Good!" Jimmy said as he held his injured shoulder and got in the van.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
November 20, 2015  
11:00 PM PST**_

The team gathered at the hotel to go over what happened. Jimmy was in the shower trying to clean up after his fall into the dumpster. The other four were fuming.

"You made a bad call, Walker," Casey said. "We needed the intel and you put Chuck ahead of that when he wasn't in any danger."

"I saw Stavros as a threat," Sarah replied angrily.

"Oh, please. A girl scout could kick that wimp's ass. I'd even put money on Chuck to kick his ass."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Case," Chuck replied sarcastically.

"Let's hope your little trick with the bug worked. They're sifting through the recordings now to isolate the Demetrios'. That moron, Slade, lost the USB drive. Probably left it in the computer."

"Speaking of which, shouldn't we take him to a doctor?" Carina asked. "He separated his shoulder and we need to make up a story…"

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Everybody turned in shock to the source of the scream. Jimmy emerged from the bathroom in a robe, having finished his shower. He immediately went to the bar and poured himself a large glass of Jack Daniels, downing it in one gulp.

"What the hell was that?" Carina asked.

"Nothing," Jimmy replied with the worst poker face imaginable.

"Wait," Chuck replied. "You didn't do that thing Mel Gibson did in _Lethal Weapon 2_ where you popped your shoulder back into place?"

"No."

Sarah walked over to him and angrily ripped the right shoulder of his robe open. "Uh-huh. So your shoulder magically went back into its socket?"

"Thank God you weren't going commando when Sarah did that," Chuck said.

"I wouldn't have minded," Carina said with her traditional libidinous gaze.

"Let me talk to Jimmy alone for a minute," Sarah said tiredly. She pulled at Jimmy's arm and the two walked out of the room over to Sarah's room. Sarah entered first and Jimmy closed the door behind them.

"At least you're not going to chew me out in front of everybody," Jimmy said quietly. "That's actually progress this week."

Sarah slumped onto her bed and looked at the ground. "I am so, so sorry for how I acted towards you. I was a complete bitch."

"You're not a complete bitch," Jimmy replied.

She looked up, a few tears on her cheeks. "Yes I am."

"Not a complete one. Maybe a quarter-bitch, half-bitch at worst."

Sarah laughed despite her mood. "You warned me this could happen. You told me I wouldn't be the only one affected by this. I just didn't think you'd end up with a separated shoulder."

Jimmy shrugged, which wasn't a stellar move given what had happened to him. He gritted his teeth in pain. "It'll be fine. I've done things a lot crazier than that. If I start going on anti-Semitic rants, then we'll worry."

"I have to admit, though. I thought Mel was pretty hot in the _Lethal Weapon_ movies. At least the first two."

Jimmy shook his head with a smile. "There's a reason I don't grow my hair that long. I'd look like an idiot. I'm 45, for chrissakes. There's a time limit for everything, and I'm well past it for good hair, dancing in nightclubs, and dating."

"Not true," Sarah sharply replied. "I've seen you dance in clubs. You're a very good dancer. And there's no way in hell it's too late to find someone. Especially for someone like you. That's what's always pissed me off about you: how negative you are about yourself."

"I prefer to think of it as being brutally self-aware."

"Like hell. You're much better than that, and I think you know it. Otherwise you'd never trust your instincts as a spy, and how many times have your instincts saved our lives? I've lost count! Now just apply that to your personal life. You're good at helping other people. Save some of that for yourself."

There was a knock on the door. Jimmy went to answer it.

"We hit paydirt," Casey said.

"Be right there," Sarah replied, and Casey went back in the conference room. Sarah walked up to Jimmy.

"Thanks for all of your help with Chuck," she told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "But save the crazy stunts for the show. Understood?"

"Understood, boss," he replied.

They walked across the hall to the conference room and Casey played the file the analysts sent him. They were able to filter out the considerable ambient noise.

" _4:00 tomorrow afternoon, San Pedro,"_ Yari Demetrios told his son _. "The package is time sensitive, so if it expires, we're all dead."_

"Got you," Casey said with a hint of a smile.

"We'll get to the docks tomorrow and intercept the shipment," Carina said.

"You need me to go?" Chuck asked.

"Sure," Casey replied. "If the shit hits the fan, we can use you, Chicken Neck."

Chuck did a slow burn as the team began to formulate a plan.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
November 21, 2015  
3:45 PM PST**_

Chuck lay on the bed in his room. Ellie and Awesome were enjoying the weekend at a bed-and-breakfast along the Pacific Coast Highway, so the apartment felt strangely quiet. His mood had improved compared to the last few days, particularly last night. Sarah apologized to him for pulling him out of the club so quickly. Not that he could completely fault her for that in the first place: he discovered early on she took her duties very seriously. But at least he knew that it was important to get the intel. Unfortunately, he had to fix a problem he got them into when he dropped the bug in front of an amplifier and gave Jimmy away upstairs.

He heard a knock on the door, and he went to answer it. Jimmy was waiting for him.

"You know, Sarah and Casey use the bedroom window to get in and out," Chuck told him.

"Uh, OK," Jimmy said suspiciously. "I gather neither one of them are concerned about your privacy."

Chuck shrugged and stepped aside to let Jimmy in. "How come you're here? I thought you'd be heading for the docks."

"Sarah and Casey have a SWAT team from the NSA with them already. If they need me, we're doing something really wrong. I just wanted to see if you were OK after last night."

"Yeah, yeah I am. Thanks for checking. Sarah apologized for what she did, so…"

"I figured she would. Like I told you, she's a good person. I know that might be hard to believe right now, but all of us are in uncharted territory. And we're supposed to be trained to handle this. I can't even begin to fathom how tough it's been for you. But you really are doing a great job. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Just…be patient with us and with the situation."

Chuck nodded. "Yeah, you told me." He was silent for a moment. "God, if I wasn't all depressed over Jill, I might have been dating Lou right now."

"Maybe. That woman certainly likes you. It's pretty obvious. But relationships are a tricky thing in the spy business."

"Apparently, so are fake ones."

"This is true. Think of how tough dating is in this town already. Now add the fact your entire life is a lie and you might be asked to eliminate that person one day. It's no wonder agents typically date other agents. But even those can be a problem. She certainly had dodged her fair share of relationship bullets."

Chuck looked at Jimmy for a second. "Wait, did you two…"

"No, of course not," Jimmy quickly denied. Chuck looked at him like he was more full of crap than a Wisconsin dairy farm. "We had a couple of dates, but thankfully nothing happened. I mean, how low must your self-esteem be to go on a date with me in the first place? She was just on the rebound." Jimmy suddenly froze, realizing he just let the cat out of the bag.

"You mean Sarah and Bryce…"

"No, they didn't date," Jimmy said as forcefully as he could but Chuck was in no mood to buy that.

"I can't believe…" Chuck froze in place for a moment before bolting to the door and sprinting out of the apartment.

"Chuck, wait!" Jimmy shouted as he tried to go after Chuck, but Chuck made it to his car and took off.

"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy shouted, angry with himself for letting that slip.

His phone began to ring. Sarah's number came up on the caller ID. "What's wrong?" he asked. He listened for a moment. "Aaah, hell."

 _ **San Pedro Docks - California  
November 21, 2015  
4:00 PM PST**_

Sarah, Casey, and the NSA SWAT team converged quickly on the shipping container.

"Hands up," Sarah shouted to the men around the container. "Nobody move!"

Several SWAT members pulled the workers away as a man in a bomb disposal suit approached the container. He drilled a small hole in the container and used a video probe to view the contents.

"Cut it," the man said, and another SWAT member cut the padlock on the container. They opened the doors.

A videocamera on a tripod was inside.

Casey immediately pulled Sarah back from the open container. "Let's hope they didn't see you," he said.

Sarah got behind the door and called Jimmy. "Jimmy, the container only had a videocamera in it. They knew we were coming. You have to find that USB drive you lost."

"Aaah, hell. Then you're going to have to deal with finding Chuck. He figured out you dated Bryce and he took off like a jackrabbit."

"Dammit!" Sarah took a deep breath. "OK, I'll deal with him. Get that USB drive. We have to hope they have the container information on their computer."

Sarah got in her car and took off as the SWAT team dismantled the camera. Casey stayed away from the camera just in case someone could identify him.

~/^\~

Stavros and Yari Demetrios rewound the footage coming from the fake shipping container.

"Who are these people?" Yari asked. "And how did they find out about the shipment?"

"I have no idea," Stavros replied, which earned him a smack to the head from his father.

"If anything goes wrong with this shipment, we are dead! Katalabaini, Stavros? These people will kill us!"

"What the hell is coming in that's so important, eh?"

"I don't know! And I don't want to know! Our job is to make the delivery, not ask questions. We need to find out who found out about the shipment, and quickly."

Stavros paused for a moment. "Hold on."

He went back to the computer and wound the footage back to when the container was opened. He slowed it down to one-quarter speed and saw something that they didn't see when the tape ran at normal speed.

"Me tipota! (No way!)" Stavros exclaimed. "It's that actress. The one who plays a spy on TV. She was at the club last night with her boyfriend!"

"You're joking," Yari replied, full of doubt. "You're saying she's a spy in real life?"

"She has to be. Those two were the only ones in the VIP room before you arrived. They must have planted a bug. And the upstairs offices were robbed! I thought they just took money but maybe they were looking for information and the money was a smokescreen."

"You find those two and bring them to me," Yari said, his voice full of menace.

~/^\~

Sarah got to her car and started to drive away from the pier. She then slammed on the brakes when she saw a Nerd Herd car approaching her. She pulled to the side and got out of her car. Chuck pulled up next to her and did the same.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah demanded. "I told you we didn't need you to intercept the shipment."

"Oh, just discovering what your type is. It's fellow agents, like ones that may or may not have gotten me kicked out of Stanford!"

"What, did Jimmy tell you I dated Bryce?"

"No, you just did."

Sarah exhaled in frustration. "Look, that situation was…complicated. You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't understand it being complicated? You're actually saying that to the person you shot down a month ago yet still insist he act like your boyfriend?"

"Chuck, I made a big mistake, OK?"

"Not your first one today," said a voice behind them.

Both Chuck and Sarah turned to see Stavros Demetrios with a couple of men, both of whom had automatic weapons trained on them. Stavros opened the trunk of the car. The men grabbed Chuck and Sarah and threw them in the trunk of the car. They slammed it shut and drove away.

"I assume you have a way to get us out of this mess?" Chuck asked from inside the trunk.

"Do you have your watch on? It has a GPS tracker in it."

"The Rolex? Why would I wear that in the middle of a Saturday afternoon? How the hell was I supposed to know we'd be kidnapped?"

"You're an important asset who is working for the government! Why not act like it for once?"

"Oh, like the way you pulled me out of the club last night just because that loser, Stavros, was giving me a neck massage?"

"I was trying to protect you, and I apologized for that already!"

"You've got an entire team that can protect me! And none of them snipe at me the way you do! Even Casey's tame compared to how pissed off you get! No wonder why your relationships never last."

"I went on only five dates with Jimmy. He even said I dodged a bullet not continuing with him."

"I'm starting to think he's the one who dodged the bullet. And what about falling in love with Bryce?"

Sarah's mouth opened in shock. "How do you know I was in love with Bryce?"

"You just told me right now"

"Stop doing that!"

"The least you could have done was tell me from the beginning. I knew you two worked together for at least three years because he was on the show. You can't even be honest with me about that? You know how many years I hated him for what he did to me?"

'Be honest with you? Like how your screw-up almost lost us the intel and gave Jimmy a separated shoulder?"

"If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have gotten that intel in the first place. Excuse me if I'm not Mr. Perfect Spy! We can't all be Bryce Larkin!"

"Jealous?"

"Me, jealous of you and Bryce? Never. But at least now I know your pattern. All anybody needs is a license to kill and you'll mount them in a heartbeat."

"Hey, who I date and who I sleep with is none of your business. We don't have a future because we can't have a future. I'm an agent and you're an asset. I'm trying to be professional."

"The world's oldest, apparently."

Sarah felt the blood drain from her face. Had her hands not been tied behind her back, she would have inflicted severe damage on Chuck and to hell with the consequences.

"Said everything you want to say?" Sarah hissed.

"More or less," Chuck replied with equal anger.

"Good. Now shut up because you're sucking up all the air."

Sarah turned away from Chuck and the rest of the trip went in a very uncomfortable silence.

 _ **Long Beach Harbor - California  
November 21, 2015  
4:50 PM PST**_

Chuck and Sarah were tied to chairs in a warehouse. As they were in the trunk of the car, they had no idea where they were. Stavros made so many turns in the past thirty minutes, they could have easily still been on the San Pedro docks. Without a GPS tracker on either of them, they had to hope Jimmy could locate the USB drive and find out the correct location of the package.

"Time is of the essence, so I'll cut to the chase," Yari said as he brought a drill to Chuck and Sarah. "We have a very important delivery that is about to be picked up, and we need to know who else knows about it."

Yari revved the drill. "OK! I'll talk! I'll talk!" Chuck yelled.

"No, Chuck!" Sarah replied angrily.

"We know all about…the imported salami. Lou told me that was the secret to her Ol' Blue Eyes sandwich. And we're cool with it, man. I mean, the real crime is that it's illegal to begin with. Honestly, there's no need for torture, Yari."

"Mr. Bartowski, I'm not going to torture you…"

"Great, great. Glad we're on the same page.

"I'm going to torture her," he continued, aiming the drill at Sarah's head.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," Chuck quickly said. "We're not on the same page anymore, Yari! We're not even on the same chapter! Please don't…don't…"

"The package is here," a man called out behind Yari. Yari turned to see the tablet computer the man was holding. "It's in Berth 19. We've got five minutes until it expires, sir."

Chuck looked at the display on the tablet computer and had a flash. He saw loading docks, hundreds of shipping containers, and several beakers of chemicals.

"All right," Yari said. "Let's go. We'll just have to kill them."

"There's a weapon in the shipment," Chuck told Sarah in a panic. "I think it's some kind of chemical bomb. We have to get to it before it blows."

Sarah looked up as one of Yari's men leveled a gun to her temple. She gave a quick nod.

A shot rang out, and the gun flew out of the man's hand.

The men still with Chuck and Sarah looked around in confusion as another shot went off, this time killing the man who almost shot Sarah. Chuck looked up to see Carina coming down the stairs from the catwalk, firing away with an Uzi 9mm. From above, Jimmy slid down on a rope tied to the catwalk, spraying the area with a Heckler & Koch MP5K. Casey walked along the catwalk using a Colt M4A1 Carbine as a sniper rifle. He took down two more of Yari's men as Carina went after Stavros. Jimmy landed and immediately pulled out a knife, freeing Chuck and Sarah.

"Sorry about the stench," Jimmy said humbly. "That USB drive was all the way at the bottom of the dumpster."

"Look out!" Chuck screamed as one of Yari's men took aim. Jimmy swung around them and opened fire, taking the man out. Stavros fired at Carina, who ducked behind a steel pillar in the warehouse. He ran out of ammunition and tried to run. Carina dropped him with a single shot.

"Go!" Jimmy yelled at Chuck and Sarah. "Find that bomb! We'll cover you!"

Chuck and Sarah ran. "Chuck, I want you to get as far away from here as possible."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, Chuck! You are not going anywhere near a live bomb!"

"Do you know how to defuse a bomb? Do you have an intersect in your head? I didn't think so!"

Chuck took off again. "Hey! Chuck! Wait!" Sarah shouted.

Inside the warehouse, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy got the upper hand against the last of Yari's men. Yari tried to make an escape, going past his last two men. Jimmy ran in that direction and somersaulted when they opened fire. He got to his knees and returned fire with his automatic, killing the two men.

"Freeze, Yari!" Jimmy commanded.

Yari stopped, completely out of breath, and dropped his gun. "OK, you got me," he said.

A pair of shots rang out, hitting Yari in the chest. Jimmy dropped to the concrete and rolled quickly as the same person who shot Yari fired at him. Casey ran along the catwalk to the source of the incoming fire, spraying the area with bullets. However, the person got away.

The man took a look around. The same man with the long scar on his face who was at the Aragon West and whom Chuck saw when he flashed on that mystery organization.

"It's Tommy," the man said into his smartphone, clearly not worried that Casey would find him. "We have a problem. The package has been intercepted. We're going to have to clean things up."

~/^\~

Chuck and Sarah made it to Berth 19. An eight-foot-tall packing crate lay in front of them.

Sarah grabbed two crowbars. "Here, help me out," she said as she tossed Chuck one of the crowbars. They went to either side of the crate and wedged the crowbars into the wood. The top of the crate separated and fell to the ground. They looked inside in total shock.

A large circular drum was inside with a countdown clock on it. There was less than a minute to go. Sarah went to find the wires under the clock.

"OK. OK, intersect," Chuck said. "Flash. Show me how to do this."

"Did you flash?" Sarah asked desperately.

"No, nothing. Come on! Come on, come on, come on, baby! Don't fail me now!"

"OK, Chuck. That's enough. Run. I'm going to try and stay and defuse it."

Chuck couldn't believe it. "No, I'm not leaving you here."

"Go! That is an order!"

"No!"

As the clock ticked under thirty seconds, Sarah pulled her gun out and aimed it at Chuck. "I said go!"

"Oh, I see. So you're going to shoot me to prevent me from being blown up? That's a great plan."

"Why are you so stubborn?!"

"Actually, I consider this a rare moment of courage. I don't know where it came from. I guess you just bring out the worst in me!"

"And you in me!" she angrily retorted.

The timer began to beep louder as it counted out the final ten seconds. They looked at it briefly before turning back to each other.

"It was nice knowing you," Chuck said, closing his eyes.

Sarah looked at him, grabbed his face, and kissed him hard. His eyes shot open in surprise before he realized what she was doing. He reciprocated, the two holding each other tightly as they hungrily devoured each other with a kiss more passionate than either of them had felt in their entire lives. Never before had Sarah poured her heart and soul into a kiss as she had just then, tightly gripping the lapels of Chuck's shirt. And given everything that had happened, Chuck was certain beyond a doubt that door had not been closed. It was, in fact, just blown wide open.

They paused and realized the timer had hit zero several seconds before. They stared into each other's eyes. Both of them then looked at the drum and suddenly the tension the two of them had felt for the last month returned.

"Well, the good news is, we're alive," Sarah said softly. "And the bad news is that this is kind of an uncomfortable…moment right now."

"It's completely comfortable on my end," Chuck replied with an equally-timid voice. "Just saying."

They heard footsteps coming in their direction. They turned to see Carina and Jimmy running towards them. Both of them stopped when they saw how close Chuck and Sarah were standing to each other.

"Uh…did we miss something?" Jimmy asked.

 _ **Long Beach Harbor - California  
November 21, 2015  
6:30 PM PST**_

Sarah, Casey, and Carina waited as the NSA Bomb Squad analyzed the drum to see what sort of weapon it was. Jimmy had driven Chuck home, as Sarah was still upset with him for risking injury like he did when he popped his shoulder back into its socket.

"Whoever shot Yari was here to pick up this package," Sarah said.

"Someone who didn't want Yari to talk," Casey concluded.

"All clear," the Bomb Squad captain announced. "Looks mean but it's nonlethal. That timer wasn't a fuse. It was measuring an oxygen supply."

The technicians backed away from the container, and it opened with a hiss of dry ice. They looked at the contents inside, and Sarah could barely hold herself together.

"Oh, my God. Bryce."

"Wasn't he killed?" Casey asked.

"Whoever was on that video footage the night Bryce stole the data needed him alive, even though Bryce must have double-crossed them," Carina said.

In the container, Bryce gasped. Sarah felt a bit light-headed at seeing her former lover still alive.

 _ **Unknown Location  
November 21, 2015  
10:00 PM PST**_

Tommy Delgado faced those same leaders once again. He did not have anything to show for his efforts, and he wasn't expecting this meeting to go well.

"You're saying the CIA is now in possession of Larkin?" one of the leaders asked.

"Yes, but he may no longer be the key. I believe this Chuck Bartowski is the missing piece of the puzzle. If my theory is correct, Bartowski has the ability to be a human intersect. In fact, based on the performance of the team, I think he downloaded the contents of Bryce's email. Also, I found out Slade once was an intersect. That was 25 years ago, but his mind might be able to handle an updated file as well."

"We only need one person for our purposes. Since Bartowski is the one carrying the intersect, we want him captured. Eliminate the rest. Larkin, Walker, Casey, Miller, and Slade. Kill all five of them. And do not fail this time."

"Understood," Tommy replied.


	9. PINEAPPLE!

_Hello. Well, I did say to make whatever comments you wanted about the story, and you did. Some more than others. Actually a few of the requests I got I have to agree with and will certainly try to fix those in future chapters. But like I said last time, I'm flying a bit blind in writing this. This is the first long-form story I've written where Chuck and Sarah weren't together from the outset. And I have to admit making a few mistakes. But remember, the journey is long, and even when I put them together that doesn't give them a happily ever after. And of course, the story promised the ENTIRE team would be affected by coming to Burbank. The first of those will occur in the next chapter._

 _I think the other thing some people might be forgetting is that Sarah, who really has been the focus of the story so far (despite how it may look otherwise) is not the same Sarah we knew in season 1 of the show. She isn't a lone wolf anymore. She had been partnered with Bryce for some time and has been working with a four-person team for five years. She can't be the same as she was in the show. Although there are one or two things she does have in common with canon Sarah, some of which are discussed in this chapter._

 _Anyway, hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading this (and the parts that come from the show are still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions), and please leave reviews. Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
November 21, 2015  
7:30 PM PST**_

Chuck walked into the Buy More in a far different mood than a couple of days ago. What happened earlier this evening was still burned into his mind. Actually, he figured it would be there forever and he could definitely live with that. The kiss he shared with Sarah was one of the most intense experiences of his life. And the most exhilarating. He never felt a kiss like that…ever. Not from any of the girls he dated in high school…both of them…and definitely not from Jill. It was…magical.

No, it was beyond even that.

Perhaps the element of fear played into it. They were only seconds away from what they thought was certain death. And they had spent that last half-minute yelling at each other. Granted, he thought Sarah was insane to try and dismantle a bomb he didn't flash on…not to mention threatening to kill him in order to not be blown up by the bomb.

But in those final seconds he realized everybody was right, that Sarah was not the cold-hearted nasty person he thought she was over the past month. And uncomfortable moment or not, you don't kiss someone like that if you have no interest in them.

He needed to talk to someone about it and Morgan was the perfect candidate, primarily because he knew what Chuck had gone through in the past, especially with Jill. He also wanted to assuage Morgan's fears about any problems he was having with Sarah. It certainly didn't feel like they had problems now.

Chuck spotted Morgan in the back, avoiding work as usual. Wisely, he contacted Jimmy Slade before going to the Buy More to tell him he was going there and reassured him he was just going to visit Morgan. This time, Jimmy let him go without an argument. He figured Jimmy wanted to cut him a break after what happened earlier. Thankfully neither Carina nor he saw Sarah kiss him. He couldn't even imagine what would being going through their minds if they had…to say nothing about Casey.

"Bartowski!"

Chuck turned around. He was surprised to see Big Mike at the store so late on a Saturday. Actually, it was unusual for Big Mike to ever be at the store on the weekend, given how much time he devoted to fishing.

"Mike, what's going on?"

"You don't film next week, right? And is Walker taking you to some chalet in Europe?"

"No on the first, and I don't even know if she owns a chalet. But we've made no plans for next weekend, if that's what you're wondering."

"I could use your help around here. You know what next Friday is?"

Chuck nodded in pain. "Black Friday, yes. I've spent quite a few Black Fridays here. Last year, it took a week before the headaches went away."

"Tang is gone, so I need someone with half a brain to help run things."

Chuck's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Harry Tang is gone? What happened?"

"They transferred him to the Buy More in Oxnard. Things with him here got…incompatible," Big Mike replied, attempting to cover up what really happened…and not very well. "That's why I need you here. What do you say?"

"I'll…have to talk to Sarah about it. We haven't made any plans, but you know actors can be, especially when they finally get some time off."

"Yeah, what a rough problem," Big Mike huffed. "Work for only half the year, make a six-figure salary each week, and have the world think you're a hottie. What a bitch that must be."

Chuck gave him a weird look. If anybody didn't have the right to talk about working hard, it was Big Mike. "I'll let you know," he told him and continued towards Morgan.

"Dinner's at 8:30, sweetie," Anna said to Morgan and gave him a kiss, much to Chuck's surprise. "Hey, Chuckles," she said as Chuck approached Morgan.

"What is going on?" Chuck was flabbergasted. "I was in here two days ago, and now Harry Tang is gone and Anna is kissing you? What, did someone step on a butterfly and alter time?"

"Chuck, this week has been so epic!" Morgan couldn't be happier if Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer wanted to have a threesome with him. "First, Harry goes ballistic at Big Mike over some video Harry claims he saw of Big Mike and his wife together. But he can't prove it and goes nuts. Corporate sent him out of here. Then Jeff was saying he was going to ask Anna out and she overheard him. She tells Jeff she'd rather date ME than him! Can you believe that?"

"If the choice was between you and Jeff, then yes," Chuck replied. "If the choice was between Jeff and any other person on the planet, I'd still say yes."

"So Anna and me, we're playing _Call of Duty_ , and I try to give her a kiss. She got mad, and I felt like an idiot. I thought she liked me. I made a fool of myself. The guys at Sbarro even named a pizza slice after me: no sauce, all cheese. They called it "The Loser." But then Anna came back to me and decided I was worth it, and we're dating now."

"Morgan…I'm impressed!" Chuck said, holding out his hand to let Morgan give him a high-five. "I never would have expected that to happen for you."

"Wait," Morgan said, suddenly a little set back by Chuck's words. "You…you think this would have eventually happened for me, right?"

"Right! Right." Chuck realized the error of his ways. "You having a girlfriend is not as far-fetched as most people think. And hey, I know you were worried about me and Sarah, but things have changed there, too."

"Sweet! Changed how?"

"Well, I thought it wasn't going anywhere, that it was over. And then…and then we had this…this moment. This really…I mean…great moment."

Chuck's mind wandered to the kiss. "Then in the moment after that, I realized I was wrong about the problems we had been having. That we should be together…that…"

Chuck turned to see Anna straddling Morgan and kissing him passionately, little giggles coming from her.

"Yeah, I'm gonna…I'm gonna leave now," Chuck said cautiously as he backed away.

Morgan reluctantly broke away from Anna. "Hey, is it cool that Anna comes for Thanksgiving dinner?"

"Yeah, of course! I mean, you know how Ellie loves big Thanksgiving dinners."

"Is Ellie going to be there?" Anna asked warily.

"Well, yes. Because Chuck lives at Ellie's apartment," Morgan replied.

"I know that."

"And she kind of makes all my favorite dishes. You know, like stuffing with apple chips and sweet potatoes with marshmallows."

"And I know _that_ , too," Anna said, jumping down and spiking Morgan's shoe with her heel as she walked away.

"She…scares the crap out of me," Morgan said quietly to Chuck. "She's got this crazy idea that I'm in love with Ellie."

"Because you ARE!" Chuck exclaimed.

"Why does everybody know that?"

"Because that's what you tell everybody!"

"I…I don't know what to do, man. I'm in love with two women." Morgan shook his head and looked at the ground.

Chuck looked towards the door. He was actually relieved to see Jimmy there. Chuck waved him over.

"So sorry to bother you, Chuck, but we have to go," Jimmy said.

"Ah, the life of a Hollywood star," Chuck mocked.

"It has its bad days every now and again," Jimmy replied, trying to maintain the actor cover in front of Morgan.

"And dude, I'd totally believe that if I didn't see that picture of you with Beyoncé in _Entertainment Weekly_ backstage at Madison Square Garden," Morgan said with not a little jealousy.

"Catch you later, buddy," Chuck said as he walked out of the store with Jimmy. They got into his car and drove off.

"What's going on?" Chuck asked.

"Sarah called me and told me to come get you."

"What for?"

"I don't know. She didn't say."

"Wait, wait. Do you really not know or do you know and you don't want me to know? Because shouldn't I know what you know from you instead of her or is she the one who wants me to know what I don't know that you don't know?"

Jimmy gave him a weird look. "You should take that sentence to a tailor. I'm sure they can shorten it for you. She didn't say a thing to me. I'm assuming that's because I've stuck my foot in my mouth so many times this week, I'm crapping shoelaces."

Chuck faced forward for a few minutes. He felt guilty because Jimmy was inadvertently caught in the middle of his fight with Sarah, fell three stories into a dumpster, and separated his shoulder as a result. To his credit, the scream he made popping his shoulder back in place was as mad as he got.

A smile came to Chuck's face. "You actually took a pic with Beyoncé?"

Jimmy shook his head and laughed. "And where was the paparazzi then?! Figures they don't try to link me up with her. I would have been OK with that. She's twenty times hotter in person and she's really nice. She loves the show, too, although she admitted to me Casey is her favorite. I think she felt bad for me when she heard about the whole Kanye debacle."

"Why were you in New York?"

"All of us were. We'll film episodes all over the place as a smokescreen for missions we're on."

"So, what mission were you on in New York?"

"Can't tell you. Sorry," Jimmy replied, and he received a very evil glare from Chuck. "We were trying to prevent a chemical weapon from being released in the New York subway system."

Chuck's eyes widened. "You're right. You shouldn't have told me."

"Carina and I jumped onto a speeding subway train. Thank God she's such a good shooter because one of the terrorists had me dead to rights while I was trying to disable the bomb. Sarah and Case were on the surface in a car chase to get the rest of the terror cell. If you ever see Casey laughing while watching a car chase scene in a movie, you'll know why."

Chuck laughed. "Really?"

"Even the good ones. _The French Connection_ , _Bullitt_ , _Goldfinger_ , _The Blues Brothers_ , you name it. He thinks they're complete bullshit."

"Well, you have to admit you do lead some pretty exciting lives. And I'm just basing that on what I've seen so far. Oh, while we're on the subject, what did you do to get Harry Tang transferred?"

"What makes you think I did anything?"

"Because you actually said you would get him out of the Buy More."

Jimmy shrugged, once again learning the hard way he separated his shoulder only a couple of days ago. "Well, Harry may have seen video of his wife getting some…attention…from another guy," he grumbled as his shoulder throbbed once again. "Let's face it, Tang was 24/7 about that store. Frank Burns on _M*A*S*H_ was more easygoing than Tang. He went after the culprit, but the video suddenly disappeared, so he couldn't prove his wife was cheating."

Chuck smiled. "The employees would throw a parade for you if they knew you did that."

"I'm assuming you know why it would be a bad thing to tell them I was involved in any way in this."

Chuck put his hand up. "Yes, I know. I still can't believe Big Mike was sleeping with Harry Tang's wife."

Chuck then got a mental image of those two hooking up. "Oh God," Chuck said in disgust. "Please drive faster."

 _ **NSA Medical and Holding Facility – Santa Clarita, CA  
November 21, 2015  
9:00 PM PST**_

Chuck and Jimmy entered the facility and got two steps in when Sarah stopped them.

"Jimmy, go meet Casey," she said quickly and gestured towards the door that led to where Bryce was being kept. Jimmy walked quickly to the door and down the hallway.

"Chuck, we have to talk," Sarah said to him.

"Can I say something first?" he asked.

"No. Chuck…"

"It's the kiss, right?" Chuck nodded confidently. "It is. It's got to be the kiss. First of all, I know that the moment was very…life or death-ish. And normally, I'd run from a situation like that. You, on the other hand…you, um…you kissed me. Which was just…"

Chuck struggled with his words and the pained expression on Sarah's face didn't help one bit. "But the thing…the thing that I'd like to talk about is I'd like to invite you to Thanksgiving dinner, because Ellie…"

"Chuck, Bryce is alive," Sarah finally said.

Chuck could feel the blood drain from his face. Sarah took his hand and led him down the hall to the containment center. Bryce was strapped to a chair with an IV inserted into his arm. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy observed him from behind a one-way mirror.

"Sarah, you told me Bryce was dead," Chuck eked out as he stared in shock at the man he thought had betrayed him but may have saved him instead. Although Chuck had to admit using that term loosely given what had happened to him since that day at Stanford. "I read his obituary. How is this possible?"

"We don't know, Chuck. He won't talk to our people," Sarah answered.

"Not even you?"

"Bryce doesn't know any of us are here," Carina said. "He didn't just leave Sarah. He left all of us. The question is: why?"

"Why not go in there and talk to him? Weren't all of you friends? You worked together for three years."

"Because he asked for you," Casey replied. "We want to know what happened to him. We think he'll talk to you."

Chuck stared at Bryce for a moment. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. You want me to go in there and ask him what, exactly? Just so we're on the same page. 'Hey Bryce, why did you send me the Intersect? Why did you choose my life to ruin?' How exactly do I start that conversation?"

"You've known him a lot longer than any of us," Jimmy replied. "Just talk to him. Be a friend. You're good at that."

Chuck looked slowly at Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. He felt completely out of his element despite what the four told him. He walked to the door and looked through the slat at Bryce.

"Remember, he's rogue CIA, a trained assassin…so be careful," Casey warned him as the door slid open.

Chuck walked into the room timidly and took very small steps towards Bryce, who was still groggy and staring at the ground. The team observed from the one-way mirror.

"Who are you?" Bryce asked in a fog.

"Hey. Hey Bryce, buddy," Chuck said anxiously. "It's me. Chuck."

"I don't believe you. What did you do with the real Chuck?"

Chuck walked back to the one-way mirror. "I'd like to come out now, please."

Casey scoffed. "Natural born interrogator, huh." Sarah shot him an evil glance.

"Fantastic," Chuck muttered to himself when he realized they weren't going to let him out. He turned back to Bryce. "Alright…well, unless we're in the Twilight Zone right now and there really is another Chuck and I'm his clone, then the answer to your question is 'yes'. I am Chuck."

"Prove it. " _tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'?_ (Do you speak Klingon?)"

"Come on. They're watching us right now."

"Do it," Bryce replied forcefully.

Chuck exhaled in frustration. " _KiJa'. BIpIvKa'law'_. (Yes. I have many times.)"

Bryce stared at him for a moment. A tiny smile drew across his face. "Your Klingon's a bit rusty, Chuck."

Chuck nodded. "Yeah, I've been kind of busy lately. Ever since I got your email."

"You opened it, didn't you."

"Yeah, I did."

"Your computer?"

"Destroyed."

"So you're the only one."

Chuck's fear was quickly switching to anger. "I don't get it, Bryce. Why'd you do it? Why'd you send me the Intersect? Then why did you destroy it? And last up: how the hell are you still alive?"

Bryce looked away for a moment. "It's complicated."

"Who saved you?"

"They did."

"'They' saved you? Did they? Could you be any more cryptic? Can I get a name, a place, a something?"

Bryce gestured with his head. "Come here," he whispered. Chuck moved closer.

"Get that close to a rogue killer. No, that's not a dumb thing to do, Chuck. Not at all," Jimmy said as he gripped the window frame.

"Chuck, get away from him," Sarah whispered in fear.

"I'm sorry, Chuck," Bryce said. He then ripped his arm out of one of the restraints and pointed a syringe-filled needle at Chuck's neck. "Untie me!"

"OK," Chuck said in a panic, untying Bryce's other arm and legs. The team poured into the room with guns pointed. Bryce got behind Chuck, using him as a human shield and keeping the needle at Chuck's neck.

"Bryce! No!" Sarah shouted.

Bryce was in shock but kept a tight grip on Chuck. "Sarah? What are you doing here? What are all of you doing here?"

"Making sure the rumors of your death won't be greatly exaggerated," Casey snarled as he cocked his gun.

Bryce gave a little smile. "I always loved the way you threatened people, Case. Bet you're sorry you weren't the one to kill me."

"The night's still young."

Bryce looked to Casey's left. "And Carina. Looking as _femme fatale_ as ever." Bryce turned to Chuck. "She used to hit on me all the time, even though she knew I was with Sarah."

"Some confession," Carina replied, doing a slow burn. "She's been seeing me do that since our CAT Squad days."

"And you must be my replacement," Bryce continued as he looked at Jimmy. "I have to admit, you're way funnier on the show than I ever was."

"Compliments won't make me lower my gun," Jimmy hissed through gritted teeth.

Bryce pushed the needle further into Chuck's neck. "I don't know what's in this syringe, but I'm sure enough of it will not be good for Chuck."

Bryce backed up to the wall and slid along it to prevent anyone from getting behind him. He marched backwards out of the holding room with Chuck in tow.

"Stand down!" Sarah ordered the half-dozen security men who came running when the alarms went off. The team followed her out and down the hallway.

"Don't do this, Bryce!" Sarah pleaded. "We're all on the same side here."

"And what side is that?" he replied with scorn as he walked backwards to the lift with Chuck in tow.

"I have a shot," Casey said.

"No no no!" Chuck yelled. "No shooting, no shooting! I'm susceptible to bullets!"

Bryce pulled Chuck into the lift. "The access code!" Sarah stayed silent. "I'll kill him, Sarah!"

"Between you and me…" Chuck said several octaves above his normal voice. "…I think he means it!"

Casey continued to keep his laser sight on Bryce's forehead.

"5-1-6-0-2," Sarah said, finally relenting to the team's displeasure. Bryce punched in the code and the doors slid shut.

"Sarah?" Chuck called out as he disappeared from their view.

Bryce breathed a sigh of relief, took the needle away from Chuck's neck, and pushed him forward in the lift.

"You knew I wouldn't do it, right?" Bryce said with a big grin, slapping Chuck on his back.

Chuck turned and looked ready to kill Bryce. "No! No, I did NOT know that! How would I know that and what are you trying to do?"

"What are they doing here?"

"They're protecting me, OK? We're the good guys! Look, you need to stop this right now before someone, namely me, gets hurt."

"It's too soon," Bryce said, ignoring Chuck's comments. He looked at the display for the lift. "We're slowing down."

Chuck rolled his eyes in frustration. "We don't have to do the whole thing…" Bryce grabbed him, spun him around, and placed the needle back at his neck. "Wait! Don't, don't…"

The elevator opened. "Stop this elevator…" Bryce began as the doors opened, only to find Tommy Delgado waiting for them.

"Bryce," Tommy said calmly. "Who's your friend?"

Chuck began to flash, seeing images of a plane, several dead people, all of whom were killed by Tommy, and most importantly, a top secret file folder with the label 'Fulcrum'.

"You step back," Bryce threatened.

Tommy didn't even blink. "OK. I wouldn't want you to kill some random person. I'd…feel just terrible. Of course, I don't believe the man you're holding hostage is random."

"Tell your people that I'm gone."

"This is your chance, Bryce. This is me being reasonable. Let's go. Let's be friends again."

"We were never friends."

"Ouch." Tommy continued to talk in that same staccato voice that gave away no emotion whatsoever. "Now my feelings are hurt."

Tommy regarded him for a second. "You're gonna run, aren't you. Do what you want. We'll get to you eventually. We can always start with the other four. Shame, too. I really like the show."

The doors closed again and Bryce let Chuck go. "Who was that?" Chuck asked.

Bryce stared at the door, still not believing Delgado was actually at whatever facility to which they brought him. "Nobody."

Chuck turned to face him. "What's Fulcrum?"

Bryce looked at him in surprise. "Where did you hear that?"

"The Intersect," Chuck replied while pointing at his head. "I have these flashes."

"I was right!" Bryce was ecstatic. Relative to him, anyway. "You can remember its intel. Is it always that fast?"

"What is Fulcrum, Bryce?" Chuck demanded. "Who are they and how do they know you?"

An alarm bell sounded as Bryce halted the elevator. "This is my stop."

"No, wait! I have questions, millions of questions."

"Chuck…this is going to sting a little."

Bryce stuck the needle in Chuck's arm, releasing what was in the syringe.

"Tell Sarah it's hard to say goodbye," Bryce said as Chuck fell unconscious to the floor.

The doors opened a few moments later. Sarah and Casey moved in, and Jimmy climbed up to look for Bryce in the elevator shaft, but Bryce was long gone.

"Chuck, hey Chuck," Sarah said, gently shaking his face back and forth to wake him up. Chuck opened his eyes slowly but was still quite loopy from whatever Bryce injected him with.

"Hey…ehhh...Hey," Chuck said, reaching up to caress Sarah's face. "Hey…hey…"

Casey came into his view. "Eh…AAAAAGH! Not pretty! Ugly!"

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
November 21, 2015  
11:45 PM PST**_

"It wasn't a full dose he gave you," Sarah said as she walked Chuck back to his apartment. "It should be out of your system in a few hours."

"Thanks. I think I can handle it from here." Chuck wasn't sure why Sarah chose to walk him back to the apartment if Jimmy was now his primary handler, but he didn't give it much thought. "So are the four of you going to go after Bryce now?"

"No. Bryce is probably halfway around the world by now. It's someone else's job to find him."

Chuck couldn't believe it. "Sarah, this is Bryce Larkin we're talking about here. Your old flame, my old nemesis. We have to do something."

"We each have our own assignment," Sarah replied, a little agitated Chuck was challenging her on this.

Chuck exhaled in frustration. "It's just…I need to know why he did this. Why he sent the Intersect to me, why did he leave again, and who that person was in the elevator that knew him."

"We'll get answers, Chuck. That much I promise."

"But what if…hey, sis!"

Ellie walked up to Chuck and Sarah. "Hey, Sarah. It's good to see you. Are you coming for Thanksgiving?"

Sarah looked at Chuck momentarily. "Of course," she replied, figuring that was the right answer. There was enough tension already between Chuck and her and she was afraid to let it spill over into Chuck's family.

"Wonderful. Do you think any of your co-stars would like to join us? They must by dying for a home-cooked meal."

"I will certainly ask them."

Chuck had to smile. Ellie was doing this for reasons beyond receiving more compliments on the feast she typically put out, as great as it was. He knew Ellie had a mini-crush on Jimmy, although he wondered if Ellie knew Devon liked the 'bad girl' image of Carina that was a contrast to Ellie's girl-next-door personality. Toss in Morgan bringing a real date, and Chuck figured this to be a memorable Thanksgiving meal.

The fact that Bryce never left town meant Chuck had no idea just how memorable it would be.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
November 26, 2015  
4:00 PM PST**_

Chuck walked through the courtyard with the groceries Ellie asked him to purchase. He was thankful she sent him out for a few errands, as Black Friday orientation for the Nerd Herd was getting stale quickly. He already knew what he had to do, and Jeff and Lester couldn't help but like that the store had a code word for ordering an evacuation: pineapple. Naturally, once they heard the word, the two morons couldn't say anything else. He prayed they wouldn't become the boys who cried 'Wolf' and there was an actual emergency.

He opened the door. He wasn't sure what he was more surprised at seeing: that John Casey accepted Ellie's invite to dinner or that he was drinking a Cosmo.

Ellie took the bag of groceries. "Chuck, thanks so much." She then nodded in Casey's direction. "He's so sweet."

"Yeah…like honey," Chuck replied nervously.

Casey went into the kitchen at Awesome's behest to stuff the turkey. "Ellie, is it OK if Morgan brings someone tonight?" Chuck asked his sister. "A real someone, not an imaginary someone, I promise. She's really nice, and…"

Ellie turned to him in shock. "She? You said she?"

"Yes. Yes. Anna, Morgan's girlfriend. There could be a little issue, though, because she know about you and Morgan."

"What are you talking about?" Ellie said in confusion.

Chuck didn't have time to explain as the doorbell rang. "Just remember, it's not my fault."

He opened the door to find Sarah, Morgan, and Anna waiting.

"Sarah, hi!" Ellie exclaimed, giving her a kiss and taking the bouquet of flowers Sarah brought. "And hello Morgan and Anna."

"Very nice to meet you…finally," Anna replied, handing Ellie her green bean casserole. "Hussy," Anna whispered as she walked past Ellie.

"Carina and Jimmy couldn't make it?" she asked, turning back to Sarah.

"Carina's father came into town last night and surprised her, so they're out at a restaurant right now," Sarah replied. She didn't have the heart to tell Ellie that Carina loathed family gatherings and was out with a few of her Hollywood friends right now getting hammered.

"And Jimmy?"

"Actually, I didn't tell him about the dinner. Believe me, I was doing you a favor."

"What do you mean? Does he get drunk at gatherings and make a fool of himself?"

"More like…the complete opposite of that." Ellie furrowed her brow in confusion. Sarah couldn't decide what was more depressing: lying about Carina or telling the truth about Jimmy. "Jimmy is very uncomfortable being invited to dinners. He always feels like he has to help. At restaurants he's OK because he's paying for that. But he can't handle someone else doing the work and he is just a guest. At our Christmas party last year, he made all these _hors d'oeuvres_ , bought all the liquor, and even cleaned up the party room when we were done. And the party was catered. He wouldn't relax and enjoy himself. It drove us crazy."

Ellie shook her head and laughed. "And where was that little tidbit eight hours ago when I needed it?"

Sarah smiled. "Does this mean Chuck and I have to stay together for at least another year so you can draft Jimmy into helping you next Thanksgiving?"

Ellie laughed even more heartily. "I wouldn't force you to do that. Although I'd be ecstatic if the two of you were dating for a long time. I mean, the way you two are together, it makes me long for my first year of med school when I met Devon."

"You've been together that long?"

Ellie nodded. "About seven years. We met in med school and missed our first class because we were fooling around in the broom closet in the lecture hall."

Sarah raised her eyebrows. The last thing she expected from Ellie was spontaneity like that. Her CIA bio work-up painted the opposite picture. "I admit, I never would have thought that of you."

Elle shrugged. "What can I say? It was…" she inflected her voice to sound like her boyfriend. "…awesome."

Sarah laughed at that. A genuine laugh. Something she had done many times since coming to Burbank. She was starting to think she wasted the last month being upset. She also figured the people on the receiving end of her anger would agree.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
November 26, 2015  
6:30 PM PST**_

Thanksgiving dinner was, as always, spectacular at the Bartowski household. Everybody, even Sarah and Casey, raved about the food. The only person not having a good time was Anna, who kept a wary gaze on Ellie the whole night. And Morgan eschewing her green bean casserole for Ellie's sweet potatoes with marshmallows only bolstered her anger towards Chuck's sister.

Chuck excused himself to go use the bathroom. As he walked down the hall, he noticed his bedroom door was open a crack. He swore he had closed it earlier, so he entered to see what was going on.

Bryce was waiting behind the door. "Hello, Chuck."

Chuck stared with full-on anger instead of shock. "Sarah and Casey are right outside. One girlish scream from me and they go into combat mode."

"Relax," Bryce replied, putting his hands up. "I just need to talk to Sarah. Could you get her for me? Alone, preferably?"

"Why would I help you?"

"Because of Fulcrum. That guy in the elevator, he works for them. And they want the Intersect, Chuck. They want _you_."

Chuck exhaled. The thought of Bryce and Sarah having been together was still a painful one, but he hoped Bryce simply came back to talk shop. "Be right back."

Chuck returned to the table and sat down. "Bryce Larkin is in my bedroom," he mouthed to Sarah.

"Excuse me," Sarah replied and got up from the table. She went down the hallway to Chuck's room and entered, carefully looking around. However, she didn't see Bryce.

"You're getting rusty," Bryce said, hopping down behind her.

"Bryce, I have a gun. Do I need to use it?"

"I'm unarmed. And I'm sorry."

At the table, Awesome got into a conversation with Casey about doing some whitewater rafting. "Chuckles, do you still have those brochures in your room? I'll go get them."

"Let me go get them," Chuck said quickly. "No, no, no, no. No…I'll get them. Please, you guys should…you know, talk...talk."

"Why shouldn't I arrest you right now?" Sarah angrily asked Bryce.

"Because I'm not a rogue spy," Bryce replied. "Because the Intersect was a mission."

Bryce walked closer to her. "Because, Sarah…you're still in love with me."

Bryce gently took Sarah's face in her hands and placed his lips on hers. For a few seconds, Sarah reveled in the feeling of her former lover's kiss. The feelings that it brought back to the surface, the ones she thought were long since buried.

Those same few seconds that Chuck saw through the slightly ajar door to his bedroom. Right then, he realized that he would never be someone that Sarah could be with. He couldn't compete against Bryce. He never could. Not in computers, not in assassination games, and especially not in women.

He walked back to the table, having forgotten all about the brochures he was supposed to get.

Sarah pulled back from Bryce, much to his surprise.

"No," she said with conviction. "I'm not still in love with you, Bryce. I was once, but I was a different person then. That person is gone now. You helped to drive her away when you left. I hated you for that. But I never realized it before now, that made me a different person."

Bryce hung his head before looking up again. "I hope it was for the better."

Sarah nodded. "It was. I always had doubts when I led our team while you were around. It felt like…I questioned every last thing about myself. But not anymore. I trust those three and they trust me. We take care of each other, far more now than we did in the early days."

As Chuck sat down, Awesome decided everybody should say something they were thankful for. "I'll start. I am thankful that I am here with the most beautiful woman in the world. Ellie Bartowski."

"Good call," Morgan said.

"Morgan!" Anna snapped.

"That's sweet, honey," Ellie replied, ignoring Morgan and Anna. "And I am thankful for my family and my friends."

Ellie and Devon looked towards John Casey. "Uh…I pass."

"Chuck?" Devon asked.

"I'm thankful that Bryce Larkin is dead and is not currently in my bedroom making out with my new girlfriend," Chuck said in an almost suicidal tone.

Casey cleared his throat. "Excuse me, please," he said as he got up from the table.

Morgan stared at Chuck. "Wow, buddy. That was really, um…dark."

"And specific," Devon added.

"Sarah, I need your help," Bryce said.

Sarah and Bryce heard the door open. "Please don't run," she begged Bryce as Casey entered. "Casey, everything is under control."

Casey was mad enough to chew through Anna's green bean casserole as he watched Bryce leap out of the window.

"Nice work, Walker," Casey hissed as Chuck re-entered his bedroom.

"Hey, no guns at Thanksgiving!" Chuck said as he saw Casey aiming his pistol out the window.

"Look, Bryce said he needed our help," Sarah said.

"He claimed he wasn't a rogue spy and the guy we ran into before he left the elevator worked for Fulcrum," Chuck added. Casey didn't look particularly convinced. "Case, if he was a rogue spy, why would he come back to the place where he almost got caught?"

Casey put his gun away. "Let's get back to the hotel and contact Beckman. Chuck, call Miller and Slade and send them over there. Sarah and I have to tell Ellie we can't stay."

Chuck nodded. "OK." He looked for Carina's number as Sarah and Casey went back to the table to establish their alibis.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
November 26, 2015  
9:00 PM PST**_

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy took the elevator up to Sarah's floor. Carina was a little tipsy from her evening, and Jimmy was quite upset. Not only was he not invited to Thanksgiving dinner, the Packers were destroying the Bears so he couldn't even enjoy a good football game.

They walked down the hall, prepared to enter the conference room they set up across from Sarah's room.

"This might be the alcohol, but did you leave your TV on, Sarah?" Carina asked, pointing at the light coming from underneath Sarah's door.

"No, we see it, too," Jimmy replied. He then pulled Carina's skirt out, which was stuck in her panties. "That, on the other hand, might have been the alcohol."

Carina pulled Chuck away from the door as Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy readied their weapons. Sarah inserted the keycard to the lock and opened the door. Casey and Jimmy charged in, leveling their weapons at the person typing away at Sarah's computer. However, that person also had their gun drawn.

"Put the gun away, Bryce," Sarah warned him. "You've already ruined this night."

"I was on a mission, Sarah," he replied. "Three years ago, I was recruited by an outfit called Fulcrum. A special access group within the CIA."

"You're lying. We would know that."

"They knew who I was. My activation codes, my record. They ordered me to shed my agency contacts and go deep. That's what happened in Venezuela. I had to choose a place to disappear where the CIA couldn't ask a lot of questions. But then I discovered it was an internal strike to download and destroy the Intersect. Fulcrum had plans for its intel."

"How can we trust you?"

For the first time, Chuck saw uncertainty in Bryce's eyes. It was disturbing, to say the least.

"I…never meant to hurt you Sarah," Bryce replied quietly. "I never meant to betray the team, but I didn't know who to trust."

"Is that…is that why you sent the files to me?" Chuck asked.

Bryce nodded. "I needed someone who wasn't a spy, who wouldn't know about Fulcrum or any of the prior Intersects, like Agent X, Project Goodwin or Operation Sand Wall."

Chuck flashed, seeing images of file folders, cabinets, charts of brain analyses, and thousands of lines of computer code.

"Sand Wall," Chuck said. "That was the name of the mission. The Intersect he stole. I just flashed. Sarah, I think he's telling the truth. Agent X was the subject of an early form of the Intersect from the 1980s."

"And Project Goodwin was the Intersect project Jimmy was on," Sarah added.

Bryce stared in shock. "You're the same Jimmy Slade? The one who was supposed to have committed suicide?" Jimmy nodded. "You look completely different. Small world indeed."

"I still want to know: how in the hell are you still alive, Bryce?" Chuck demanded.

Bryce walked away from the computer, holstered his gun, and sat down in a chair. Everyone else lowered their weapons. "Ironically, the first shot is the one that almost killed me. Tommy shot me in the shoulder and I was bleeding profusely. Then he put the two through my chest and threw me in the car. I was starting to lose consciousness from the blood loss. Tommy discovered I was wearing a vest. He took it off and aimed at my head."

" _Where are they? Where are the Intersect files, Bryce?" Tommy demanded. "Tell me or you're dead."_

" _I…I saw them. They're in me…" Bryce answered in a fog before passing out._

" _Save him," Bryce replied in disgust. "Whatever it takes, save him."_

"So they did. I was in a coma for a long time, I don't even know how long. Then one day, I'm in the same clinic I had been for almost six weeks in Europe somewhere…I think…and they sedate me again. I guess this was their way of smuggling me back into the U.S. All of my agency passports were likely flagged by then."

"So what have you been doing for the last three years?" Carina asked.

"I had been gathering intel on Fulcrum. Files, bank accounts, lists of rogue agents, anything I could find. I encoded the data and hid it here in Los Angeles. I wanted to get as much as I could to bring all of Fulcrum down so this would never happen again. I was getting close, but then I discovered Fulcrum was getting close to knowing the location of the Intersect data. I stole it before they could."

"You convinced them _you're_ the Intersect?" Chuck asked.

Bryce nodded. "And I need your help."

"We're going to help _you_?" Casey asked with considerable derision.

"I need to turn myself into the CIA and hand over everything I have found over the past three years, but Fulcrum has operatives in every agency. I need to know I'm being handed over to the _real_ CIA."

"I can do that," Chuck said. "I can do that. I can be there at the transfer. If I flash on whoever they send, they're Fulcrum. If not…you're on your way home."

"That'll work," Sarah said. "Smart, Chuck. Casey and I will set up the transfer. Carina and Jimmy will retrieve the intel Bryce hid."

"They still need a place where the transfer can go down," Casey said. "Public place, lots of people."

For the first time, a smile came to Chuck's face when he thought about what he was usually doing the day after Thanksgiving. "A public spot with lots of witnesses? I know just the place."

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
November 27, 2015  
5:55 AM PST**_

Big Mike had all of the employees lined up, including Chuck. Without Harry Tang around, Chuck figured to be in for a very long and busy day. And that didn't even count having to make sure Bryce was safely transferred to the CIA agents that would be here in ninety minutes to take him to the airport. Sarah and Casey would enter the store in thirty minutes and escort Bryce to the employees' breakroom. They figured it would be best to stay hidden so as not to be deluged by shoppers already champing at the bit to get in. Even Chuck had to be wary; surely a number of customers would have seen him on TV. But he had his answers to them memorized; that he was just doing a favor for his old friend and didn't want to leave his former co-workers in the lurch.

Sarah told him to relax…as did Carina, Jimmy, and even Casey…but he still couldn't help but be nervous. He had to make the call whether the CIA agents were legitimate or not. If they were, he was to bring them to the breakroom to make contact with Bryce. At the same time, it would be the signal for Carina and Jimmy to go into the storefront office in Torrance and hack the computers there to retrieve Bryce's intel.

"OK, listen up," Big Mike bellowed. "Three minutes before we let those animals in. If this was a zoo, I'd say run for your lives. But this is Buy More! For those days you did squat, THIS is where you make up for it! Don't let me down. This is the single most important day of our year."

Big Mike looked behind him at the throngs of people pounding on the door to get in. "And my door is LOCKED. Don't even think about knocking!"

Chuck went to open the doors, figuring everyone else was too scared to do it. Given how fast the store filled up, he knew how they felt. Anna manned the display table in the front, where she made sure everybody took only one 32 gigabyte USB drive that they were selling for $1.99. Morgan and most of the sales associates spread out to keep things under control in the various departments. Jeff and Lester contributed as much as they typically did at work: zero.

Chuck worked the middle of the store, directing customers around like a traffic cop who had been working for decades. He took in the compliments from a few that he was much more handsome in person than on TV, he explained to a few that he was helping out his former co-workers on Black Friday, and he ignored the one or two idiots who felt like they had to comment to him on how hot Sarah Walker was.

Chuck saw two men in suits walk into the store. "Sarah, Casey, Bryce, I think they're here."

In the breakroom, the three observed the store floor through the security cameras that Casey hacked into and displayed on a tablet computer. "That should be them, Chuck," Sarah said over his earpiece. "Do your pass."

Chuck walked slowly towards the two CIA handlers. He saw the Secret Service-like earpieces both of them were wearing. Neither of them said a word to Chuck.

"Hi, welcome to Buy More," he said nervously. The two agents continued to walk past him. "Hey, hey, hey, hey. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. There were no flashes, so the CIA guys ARE legit."

"Bring them to the breakroom," Sarah replied. "Make sure they give you the correct phrase. I'll contact Carina and Jimmy and give them the go-ahead."

Chuck walked back to the two agents. "Can I help you gentlemen find anything?"

"We were looking for a Surface 4 computer," one agent replied.

Chuck breathed a sigh of relief as the agent requested the correct computer. "Come this way, and I'll help you find it."

Chuck led the two agents to the back of the store and into the breakroom where Sarah, Casey, and Bryce were waiting.

"Great work," Bryce said. "One trip to the airport, we'll rendezvous with your cohorts, and the data and I are on our way."

"On your way?" Chuck asked. "Where are you going?"

"It's time for me to disappear. Once the agency has what they need, I'm off to somewhere else. It's what I'm good at."

"The superspy, huh."

Bryce shook his head. "It's not the glamor job the show makes it out to be. That's just a cover. What you've done with Sarah and the team, that's what really counts. And you have a family and a store full of people who love you. In everything about you, I envy that the most."

Bryce held out his hand and Chuck shook it. "Thanks, Chuck. For everything. And good luck. They'll take good care of you, just like they did for me."

"I'm taking him in, Chuck," Sarah said. "You stay here."

Chuck watched Sarah, Bryce, and the two CIA agents exit the breakroom and head out the back entrance. "Right," he muttered in annoyance. "Stay in the store, Chuck."

 _ **2701 Plaza Del Amo – Torrance, CA  
November 27, 2015  
8:00 AM PST**_

Carina tapped her foot impatiently as Jimmy finally got through to the files Bryce had hidden on the computer. He had almost 2 terabytes of documents, images, and videos to download. And as grateful as he was to have a USB memory stick to handle all of that information, he was still at the mercy of the three-year-old computer. It may as well have been the Dark Ages as far as Jimmy was concerned.

"Is it done?" Carina asked. She wasn't in too good of a mood, having to work so early with a nasty hangover.

The display reached 100%. "Finally, yeah," Jimmy replied. He took the USB memory stick out of the computer and checked to make sure there were no loose papers around. He then set the computer to purge the hard drive and erase all of the intel from it.

"I'll call Sarah," Carina said as she pulled out her mobile phone. She dialed Sarah's number and her eyes went wide. "Her phone went straight to voicemail. Something's wrong."

Jimmy turned to face the door…and saw the four agents standing there with their guns pointed. "That…is an understatement."

 _ **Intersection of North Hollywood Way and Winona Street – Burbank, CA  
November 27, 2015  
7:55 AM PST**_

Sarah and Bryce sat in the back of the CIA-issue car with Bryce's handlers up front. They were only a few minutes from the airport, where Bryce and his handlers would board a private jet and head to Virginia. Carina and Jimmy were to meet them on the tarmac and hand off the USB memory stick containing Bryce's intel.

"Are we good?" Bryce asked Sarah.

"Yeah, we're clear," Sarah replied.

"That's not what I meant. I just…you have this look like you still hate me for what I did, even after you learned everything. I don't want you hating me forever."

Sarah looked forward in the car. After a few moments, she broke her silence. "The last few days have been…tough to handle. Seeing you again, those old feelings coming back to the surface, it's…half of me wants to forgive you and the other half can't."

"You were never good at this. The 'saying your feelings' part. This is actually an improvement for you."

Sarah exhaled. "I thought you were dead, Bryce. I…then Graham puts us on the Intersect mission and we find Chuck. And now…I don't know. I feel like…"

She never finished the sentence as a cargo van t-boned them, knocking all four occupants of the car unconscious.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
November 27, 2015  
8:10 AM PST**_

Chuck returned to the Nerd Herd desk. Somehow, Morgan coaxed Jeff into coming out of hiding to fix the ancient registers the store used. Lester, however, continued to cower somewhere in the store.

"Excuse me, can I get some service?"

Chuck turned towards the voice. It was Tommy Delgado. His fear went up immediately.

"You're Charles Bartowski, aren't you," Tommy asked in a calm voice. "We met the other day."

"Did…did we?" Chuck stammered. "So, uh…how…how can I…"

"I'd ditch that Carmichael name if I were you. Too lame. I'm looking for a computer. You might be familiar with this one. It was called the Intersect."

"Why? What makes you think I know about a computer called the Intersect?"

"You don't seem to understand the situation, Charles," Tommy continued. "You think all of these witnesses are a guarantee that nothing's gonna happen to you? You couldn't be more wrong."

"I'm...uh, I am so slammed right now. It's really busy. So I should probably get back to work."

"My team reacquired Bryce Larkin and Sarah Walker five minutes ago. And I hope you had nothing important to say to Carina Miller or Jimmy Slade because I sent people there to retrieve Bryce's data and eliminate them. I have over a dozen trained killers stationed throughout the store, including the back hallways and exits."

Tommy tilted his head to the left. "If you look over there, you can see my men have also neutralized John Casey."

Chuck turned to see Casey with his hands in front of him being followed by two agents in suits.

"See, here's the thing, Charles. Nothing stops me from fulfilling my orders. Innocents…civilians. If you make me, I'll execute every last person in this place."

Chuck looked around the store, seeing Morgan, Anna, Jeff, Lester, all of the employees, all of the customers, and he also saw Tommy's men. His face went ashen. He didn't know any way to get out of this.

 _ **Intersection of North Hollywood Way and Winona Street – Burbank, CA  
November 27, 2015  
8:20 AM PST**_

The agents in the cargo van pulled Sarah and Bryce out of the car and laid them out in the street. They shot the two CIA agents. They were under orders to bring Sarah and Bryce back so Tommy could deal with them himself.

One agent got on his mobile phone. "It's done. We'll need about two minutes to groom the area."

He hung up his phone and turned back to Sarah and Bryce. They weren't there.

A boot landed across his face and he was knocked to the ground. The other agent tried to fire, but he was taken out by a vertical kick from Bryce.

Bryce looked around. "Where is he?"

"Who?" Sarah asked.

"Their boss, Tommy."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Chuck!"

Sarah and Bryce bounded for the cargo van and took off to return to the Buy More.

 _ **2701 Plaza Del Amo – Torrance, CA  
November 27, 2015  
8:10 AM PST**_

The agents who captured Carina and Jimmy took their weapons and mobile phones.

"Hand over the memory stick, Slade," one of the agents threatened.

Jimmy stood there and didn't move. Carina turned away from the four men and buried her face into Jimmy's shoulder.

"Do you really think we're going to buy you crying, Miller?" the agent said.

"No," Jimmy replied with a smile. "She was just getting herself into position."

Carina kicked her leg up and pressed a button on her bracelet. The other dagger from Sarah's Jimmy Choo shoes flew out and nailed the agent dead-on. Jimmy grabbed her and spun her in the air so she could deliver a vicious kick to a second agent. She landed as Jimmy pivoted on his left leg and delivered a spinning back kick to a third agent. He took out the last agent with a brutal roundhouse.

Carina and Jimmy gathered their weapons and mobile phones. "They only sent four after us?" Carina complained. "That is so insulting."

"I know, right?" Jimmy replied.

"We need to get back to the Buy More. Chuck and Casey must be in big trouble."

"Then I'm so glad we used my car."

The two ran for Jimmy's car and sped off to the Buy More.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
November 27, 2015  
8:20 AM PST**_

Chuck walked down the aisle with Tommy right behind him. They had two agents on Casey and the rest of the team was either dead or captured. He couldn't shake the fear that not only was he a dead man, but that Tommy may kill everyone in the store anyway.

"Chuck, the registers are down and I can't get them back up!" Jeff said as he crossed Chuck's path. "What should I do?"

Chuck stood there completely frozen. "You say more than one word and I'll kill him right here," Tommy whispered.

Chuck quaked with fear, but suddenly he realized he could at least save all of the employees and customers.

"Pineapple."

Jeff gasped and took off. "Let's go," Tommy said, pulling at Chuck's arm.

Jeff ran to Morgan, who was up on a moving stock ladder. "Pineapple!"

"Hey, dude, don't say that word, OK?" Morgan said. "It doesn't have any meaning if you keep joking with it."

"No, I didn't say it. Chuck did."

"Chuck?"

"Chuck."

Morgan's eyes widened. He jumped off of the ladder, and the large box he was holding landed on Jeff. He ran to the Nerd Herd desk, leapt onto the counter, and grabbed a bullhorn.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have an emergency. I need everyone to leave the store in an orderly fashion."

He turned to see Anna at the fire alarm pull box. "Anna…PINEAPPLE!"

Anna pulled the alarm. Horns and strobe lights went off all over the store, and the customers ran for the exit. The surprise was exactly what Casey needed. He spun and elbowed one agent to the ground, then took out the other with a wicked hook. He grabbed their weapons, charged across the store, and grabbed Chuck, carrying him to the home theater room. He locked the doors and got out his smartphone.

"Code black. Hostiles in the Buy More. I need a containment team right away."

Chuck hid behind the couch as Casey checked the clips on the two weapons he confiscated. He then grabbed his pants and ripped hard like they were basketball warmup uniforms, revealing a second pair of pants underneath. Only this pair of pants had various firearms attached to them.

"Where the hell did you get those?" Chuck asked in amazement.

"Gotta be prepared. Concealing weapons is another of Miller's specialties," he replied brusquely.

Tommy watched the last of the customers and employees leave the store. He was pissed they managed to escape, but he knew Chuck had not left the building.

"Lock the doors," he ordered. His men spread out over the store while two of them locked the main doors to the store. All of them aimed towards the home theater room.

"Stay down, Chuck," Casey said as he grabbed two of the guns. "This is when the shooting starts."

"Right…right now?" Chuck asked, scared out of his mind.

Tommy looked towards the theater room with a deranged smile as his men opened fire. The windows to the home theater room shattered. Casey returned fire. As Sarah and Bryce sprinted for the back door, Chuck hid under the couch, trying to avoid being hit by anything.

Sarah and Bryce got around to the back door, only to have to dive for cover as two agents fired away at them. A figure jumped from the exterior ladder leading to the roof, landing on the two agents. Jimmy grabbed them and rammed their heads together, knocking them out completely.

"Wow. Never piss you off," Bryce said as Sarah and he walked to the door. Carina came from the other direction.

"C-4," she said. Jimmy grabbed the plastic explosive and slapped it on the door handle. He then attached a detonator and waved everybody back.

"Fire in the hole," he said and pressed a button on his remote. The door lock exploded. He grabbed it and ripped it open. Sarah and Bryce went charging down the hall with Carina and Jimmy in close pursuit. They opened fire at two more agents in the hallway, taking both of them out. They got to the hallway that crossed into the store.

"Carina, flash grenade," Bryce ordered. Carina handed him one.

"Casey," Sarah said over her earpiece. "Flash grenade, plus five seconds…and mark!"

On Sarah's command, Bryce whipped the flash grenade into the store. Casey emptied the pistol he had and dove to the floor, shutting his eyes and making sure Chuck did as well.

The flash grenade went off and blinded several of Tommy's men. Sarah and Bryce charged in, leapt over the Nerd Herd desk, and went after the enemy agents. Sarah landed a hard kick to one agent while Bryce planted a boot into another as he swung over the table. Sarah took out two other agents with kicks, including one who had gotten the drop on Bryce. Each grabbed the arm of another agent and then sent back kicks at the agent their partner was holding.

"Wow," Chuck said in amazement. "They really are great."

Sarah pirouetted over the prone Bryce to take out yet another agent, and Bryce stood up just in time to throw a roundhouse at one more. Two other agents tried to take them from behind, but Carina and Jimmy, who guarded the hallway in the back, opened fire with their weapons and dropped each of them.

Casey grabbed Chuck, not seeing any more of Tommy's men moving. "Come on, Chuck. Let's go," he ordered as he dragged Chuck out of the home theater room.

"I am getting really sick and tired of…"

He never finished the sentence as Tommy pistol-whipped Casey, knocking him unconscious.

"Where's Chuck?" Sarah asked as she threw down the boom box she used to defeat the last two agents.

"Over here."

"They turned and pointed their guns at Tommy, who had Chuck in front of him and a gun to his head. Carina and Jimmy moved down the outside aisles attempting to flank Tommy, but he wisely kept Chuck close to him so nobody had a clean shot.

"Let him go," Sarah ordered. "Now."

"Does this look like my first time?" Tommy said derisively.

"Isn't it somebody else's turn to be the human shield?" Chuck asked, more angry than scared at this point.

Bryce tried to advance. "Stay there, Bryce," Tommy said, keeping Chuck between them.

"You all right, Chuck?" Bryce asked.

"Does it look like I'm all right?"

"I need to ask you something."

"Shoot." He turned to Tommy. "Not you, please."

" _Khi-Ja yoD wep?_ " Chuck didn't answer. " _Khi-Ja, Gho Be?_ "

Chuck stared at him. He was beyond scared about Bryce asking that question. _"Khi-Ja,"_ he finally said.

"Sorry, Chuck."

Bryce aimed at Chuck's chest and fired a shot. Chuck fell back to the ground, much to everyone's shock, especially Tommy.

"Hi!" Casey said and knocked Tommy out with his gun. The two who locked the main doors went for their weapons, but Carina and Jimmy opened fire, taking them out.

"What did you say to him?" Sarah asked as she knelt at Chuck's side.

"Ask him," Bryce calmly replied.

"Hey, Chuck. Chuck, Chuck, come on, wake up," Sarah said in desperation, giving his cheeks a few gentle taps. She looked down and ripped his shirt open. She breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the bullet-proof vest Chuck was wearing.

Chuck then coughed loudly and struggled to take in a breath. "Khi-Ja. Khi-Ja," he rasped. "Yes, yes I am wearing a vest."

Sarah looked between Chuck and Bryce, who was all smiles. Casey looked impressed as Carina and Jimmy gently pulled Chuck to his feet and helped him take off his shirt and vest.

He continued to cough. "That…that stings a little bit."

Outside the store, Big Mike was ready to kill Morgan. "Grimes! You just ruined the most important shopping day of the year. And for what? FOR WHAT?! Do you know what you are, Grimes?"

"There was a gas leak in the store." Big Mike turned around to see a firefighter standing behind him. Or unbeknownst to him, an NSA cleaner dressed as one. "And whoever evacuated probably saved a lot of people. It'll take us a few hours to clean all of this up, so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep everybody out of here until we give you the say-so."

Big Mike turned back to Morgan, who was smugly polishing his nametag. "Is this straight?" Morgan asked. "Does it look good?"

Big Mike walked away in a huff and Morgan basked in the glow of not only being credited for saving the store and its customers, but that Anna forgave him for last night when Morgan carried her out of the store to safety. The two were back together.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
November 27, 2015  
11:00 AM PST**_

Chuck picked up a broken sale sign and placed it on the table where it was supposed to be. Now that the crisis had passed, he was exhausted. The team watched the NSA cleaning squad clean the store and replace the damaged merchandise with products stored in a local warehouse used for emergencies such as this.

Chuck gestured towards the home theater room, which had its curtains drawn. "What's happening with Bryce?"

"He's in there giving his report to General Beckman," Sarah replied.

Bryce emerged from the home theater room in a tuxedo and walked up to the team. "It would appear I have a new assignment," he said.

"As a _maitre d'_?" Chuck asked.

"Actually, it's a consulate dinner. The data I recovered helped but it was only the tip of the iceberg. They want me to continue to go after Fulcrum. On my own and off the radar."

Casey gave a grunt of approval. "Sounds like heaven."

"That means Bryce Larkin is dead. And he's going to stay that way this time."

He looked at everyone on the team. "Thank you for everything you did. Especially you, Chuck."

"This is so weird," Chuck replied. "Where are you going to go? Who are you going to be?"

"Sorry, not even you can know."

He then went to Sarah. "Take care of them for me," he said softly, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "They need you."

Sarah watched as Bryce walked out of the store. Chuck couldn't help but see the different flashes of emotion going across Sarah's face. He hung his head.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
November 27, 2015  
7:30 PM PST**_

Chuck lay on his bed, completely exhausted by the day. The NSA cleanup crew finished their work by 2PM. But like most stores on Black Friday, hardly anybody shopped after lunchtime, and the evacuation earlier scared away anybody who may have had a desire to buy a large TV or new laptop. After all, Large Mart was right there and had the same sales. With no evacuation.

Big Mike finally gave up and closed the store an hour ago, warning everybody they'd make a big push to sell on the following Monday. Chuck was thankful the show would begin filming again for the next episode, so he could use that as an excuse to not help.

He heard a knock at his window and turned to see Sarah there. He was surprised. He didn't expect to see her. He figured she would take off with Bryce and join him wherever he went.

"Can I come in?" she asked. Chuck nodded. "Sorry, I didn't want Ellie see me come in. She's great, though. Bryce was right; you're so lucky to have family like Devon and her. I'm a little envious myself."

Chuck gave a little laugh. "That's…funny. That either you or Bryce could be jealous of me. I mean, I get what you see in him. He offers a really exciting life. He always got the best girls."

"Chuck…"

"But I just need to know. That kiss…right when we thought we were going to die…did you kiss me because you thought we were going to die and mine were the most convenient lips available or was it actually about me?"

Sarah hung her head. She didn't talk for several moments. Chuck's posture softened at seeing Sarah in such obvious distress.

"I'm just confused, OK?" Chuck said far more gently. "We kiss that night and then I see you kissing your ex-lover a few days later in my bedroom. I don't…I don't know what to make of any of it."

Sarah finally looked up. "You saw me kiss Bryce?" Chuck nodded. "Did you see me push him away?"

That got Chuck's attention. "No, I…it just hurt when I saw it and walked away. But you didn't want him to kiss you?"

"For a moment, I was caught up in my past feelings for him. How we used to work together as partners, how we came to be on the show and led the team. But then I finally realized that he didn't see us the same way I did. Nor did he truly accept the responsibility of working with all of us.

"Over the last few days, ever since I kissed you and found Bryce alive, I questioned every last thing I've done over the past six years. How I didn't truly lead the team like I should have. And that was my fault; the show is named for my character, after all. When Bryce was around, I just did what needed to be done without thinking of how that would affect everyone else.

"Then one day, he was gone. Just like that. No explanations, no clues. I thought it was my fault and I almost cost us everything. Carina and John straightened me out, especially John. I realized I was the leader for a reason. Casey could be a leader, but he thinks too much in shades of black and white. Carina was a great team member but she'd have a hard time putting the team first ahead of herself. And when they brought in Jimmy to replace Bryce, I had to deal with an incredibly talented but a very broken person. I was the glue that held everybody together. I had to get the best out of everybody. Once I was able to do that, we truly became the best team of agents in the government. And we became better friends as a result, too."

Sarah moved next to Chuck and took his hand. "You wanted to know if that kiss was a mistake. At the time it wasn't. I…I thought we were going to die so in those final seconds I gave up trying to be Agent Walker and decided to take what I really wanted. But then we didn't die and I had to go back to being Agent Walker again. I wish I knew how to be in a relationship and be a good agent at the same time, but I don't."

She laughed at what she just said. "Even if I wasn't an agent, I'd be no good at relationships. I mean, Casey got mad at me for letting Bryce get away, Carina chewed me out last week because I was upset and taking it out on other people, and poor Jimmy ended up with a separated shoulder after being covered in garbage."

Chuck laughed as well. "Wow, suddenly what I went through with Jill doesn't seem so bad. And I know I messed up that relationship."

She smiled. "Somehow I doubt that. Maybe someday I can figure out how to lead this team and be in love with someone. But for now, I just want to say how sorry I am for everything that's happened. I mean, what you've had to go through being given the Intersect, put in constant danger, and yet still helping us, I really wish I could be in a relationship with someone like you. But I have a team to lead, and I have an asset to protect. And given how smart and wonderful he is, I really need to concentrate on doing that."

Chuck nodded and held his hand out. "Friends?"

Sarah's smile increased to full throttle, just the way Chuck liked it. "Friends," she replied, shaking his hand and leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.

"Ellie has a lot of leftover turkey," Chuck said. "Can I interest you in a turkey sandwich?"

"Sounds great," she replied. "Can we save some for Jimmy?"

"Sure, there's plenty."

"He's still depressed about the football game last night. He loves it on wheat, a slice of tomato, lettuce, and lots of mayo."

"Hmm, a man after Morgan's heart," Chuck replied, which made Sarah laugh. "No wonder why those two get along."

They got up from the bed and walked into the kitchen.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note 2** : You didn't REALLY think I'd put Bryce and Sarah together in this chapter, did you? I don't have the guts to do that. :-D_


	10. Sugar Bear

_Hello again. I apologize for the delay in getting this out, but things have been a little crazy around here, and apparently 2015 is not done taking its shots at me. All I can say is I'm glad there's only five weeks left in it. Everyone keeps telling me it has to get better, but the second I start thinking that, it seems I get another sledgehammer to the produce section, to paraphrase our favorite nerd-turned-spy._

 _Just as a side note: I mention two of the charities that Chuck fans have been so good to over the years. Operation Smile and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. When getting your funds together to buy holiday presents, please make a donation and give a wonderful gift to kids in need._

 _As you'll see from this chapter, we're at the end of season one of the show, and again I'm combining two episodes into one story. This time, however, I'm splitting the chapters up. I was writing this and discovered I was already at almost 6,000 words and not even a third of the way done with the story. But I will try to have the second part of this done by next Monday. Please bear in mind I said try; I didn't say anything about succeeding. :-D_

 _Anyway, please enjoy this new installment, which again features items that are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And for my American readers, have a great Thanksgiving. And for my non-American readers, don't work too hard this week._

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Grozny, Chechnya  
February 12, 2004  
8:30 AM MTZ**_

She smiled in that way Casey liked. This woman was trouble with a capital T, and it turned him on to no end. Casey never expected anyone to top his former fiancé, the woman he had to leave behind in order to continue serving his country fifteen years ago. There were so many days when he regretted that decision. But the woman in front of him, who just got dressed and was putting on the necklace Casey purchased for her, made him realize there was more to life than being a spy. This was the first time he could relax in front of someone. Even working on Roan's show during its final two seasons didn't help, regardless of the number of hot women who traipsed in front of his camera on a daily basis, a number of whom showed more than a passing interest in him.

"YA rada chto tebe nravitsya ("I'm glad you like it)," Casey said.

"ya lyublyu eto ("I love it"), Ilsa replied.

"Kotoryy seychas chas ("What time is it")?" Casey squinted as the sun streamed in through the window. "Are you insane? Come back to bed."

"And miss all the good sunlight?"

"Come on, Ilsa. It's not like the civil war is going to go anywhere."

Ilsa looked up and down at Casey's muscular form. She could tell he wanted more. The signs were quite obvious…and not unpleasant. "Tempting. But I have a deadline."

"Yeah," Casey said as he exhaled in frustration. Waiting until she returned would not be easy. "Why did I ever let myself get involved with a photojournalist?"

Ilsa put on her sweater and outer vest. "And how did I get myself mixed up with a…what do you call yourself again?"

"An energy consultant."

She smiled. "What does that even mean?"

"It means I get to sleep in late," he replied in a husky voice, clearly wanting to continue their activities from the previous night.

Ilsa sat down in the bed next to Casey and ran her hand over his chest. "Here's my offer…Mr. Energy Consultant."

"Yeah?"

She kissed him. "You stay in bed and preserve your precious energy…" she gave him an even longer kiss. "…and I'll be back before you know it."

Casey gave a gentle growl of frustration as Ilsa got up from the bed and grabbed her camera, slinging the strap around her neck.

"Bye-bye, Sugar Bear," she purred as she walked out the door.

Ilsa walked out of the hotel, checked her camera to see it was ready, and began to walk down the street. She made it half of a block when she entered a café to get some coffee. Casey remained in the bed. There wasn't much to do today, so he decided to wait and see if Ilsa kept to her word about returning quickly.

A large explosion erupted from the café, shattering windows throughout the neighboring buildings, including Casey's hotel room.

Casey quickly put on some clothes and ran down to the street. He had seen scenes of destruction like this many times, but it still put a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach to be in the middle of carnage such as what was in front of him. Small fires raged everywhere, there were injuries all around, several people attempting to stop the bleeding from being hit by shrapnel and broken glass. A few people were lying dead in the streets. Everyone had that same glazed-over look, as if they were witnessing a nightmare.

He then saw the camera.

He bent down and gently took the camera in his hands. The camera was damaged and charred almost beyond recognition. But he knew. He knew it was Ilsa's camera. Any other time, he could suppress his feelings and not experience the pain the victims around him felt. But he couldn't this day. He stared at the camera as a few tears welled up.

Ilsa was dead.

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
December 10, 2015  
9:00 AM PST**_

"Casey, did you hear us? Case? Case?"

Casey stared at the camera he was holding in his hands. They were setting up for the next episode of the show and Casey needed to be consulted on how to set up the cameras and lighting for the casket shots.

Casey eventually shook his head clear. "What?"

His camera assistant pointed to the set where the casket was. "Is this setup OK?"

Casey took a quick look at it. "That'll work. But pull back those short softboxes when they film overhead, otherwise you'll light up Slade like he's frickin' God. Bad enough he already thinks he is."

The camera crew laughed. They had seen Casey freeze like he just did every once in a while but nobody ever dared to ask him why. Some of them did know he used to serve in the military, so they always wrote it off to a case of PTSD. But taking digs at Carina and Jimmy was one of Casey's favorite pastimes, so they knew he was back to normal when he starting busting on one of them. He came off as distanced and grouchy sometimes, but Casey was a man's man, and the crew appreciated that.

Casey checked his watch. "Damn, gotta go. Good luck with the filming," he said and quickly walked out of the studio.

He was not thrilled about this. Chuck had set something up he said was very important and requested everyone's help. But since the show had to continue filming, they changed the schedule around so Jimmy was the only one on the call sheet. They would film the scenes where Jimmy was buried underground in the coffin today and the rest of the episode would be filmed over the next several days. He especially hated the fact his character, Duke Forrester, was the focus of this episode. Duke was supposed to get revenge against a rogue Army major for killing his wife, trying to kill Jen and Jill, and burying Lance. He'd have to do some actual acting in this episode, and he was nervous.

It would have been nice if Chuck had told him about what was going on, but he said that was a surprise. And the only thing more annoying than that nerd or even Walker having feelings for him was being roped into some lame activity Chuck wouldn't even tell him about.

He got into his Crown Vic and headed for Echo Park.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 10, 2015  
9:45 AM PST**_

Carina impatiently knocked on the door to Chuck's apartment. She wasn't thrilled she was roped into this, but nobody turns down a full VIP package at one of the best spas in Los Angeles. On the taxpayers' dime, no less. Given how many times her chances to have fun in this town had been thwarted by surprise missions, highly-dangerous situations and the occasional agent returning from the dead, she needed a day like this more than anybody. But even today had a catch.

She wasn't concerned about going to the spa, as long as the masseur was hot. It was the double-assignment she had been handed. Which was one more assignment than Sarah had, even though they were going to the same place. Both of them were to keep an eye on Ellie. But Carina also knew she had to keep Sarah's mind off of Chuck, which wouldn't be easy given how close Sarah and Ellie had become. Even though things had settled down since Bryce left…and no more injuries had been caused by any relationship angst in the past two weeks…Carina knew Sarah would be tested by Ellie today. There was little doubt Ellie wanted Chuck and Sarah to stay together, but an entire day with the two women together had plenty of potential landmines that had to be avoided. Carina would help keep an eye on Ellie to sell that things were going great, and she would also keep an eye on Sarah to make sure Sarah would sell that things were going great.

Ellie answered the door. "Welcome back, Carina."

"Good to see you again," she replied, pasting a smile on her face as she entered. Ellie wasn't the type of person Carina wanted to spend an entire day with, but she could certainly do worse. And she had to give Ellie credit for not only what she did for a living but having to raise Chuck while attending med school. She dated a few med students when she was in Tuscaloosa. They were a stressful lot.

"I really appreciate you inviting me to Ciel. It was a tough week at the hospital, and I can certainly use this. Both you and Sarah had a day off from filming?"

Carina nodded. "The episode we're filming this week focuses on Casey's character. Kind of a revenge story. Jimmy spends most of the episode trapped in a coffin, so they decided to shoot all of his scenes today to make things easier. We go back to work tomorrow."

"I was so surprised when Sarah said she got all three of us a day package. Those are really expensive."

"It was a thank you gift from the production company," Carina replied, having this lie at the ready. "We're up 15% in viewership this season, which is pretty rare for a show that's in its sixth season. They actually gave us four packages, but can you imagine Case or Jimmy at a spa?" Ellie laughed at the image. "We gave the fourth one to Sarah's assistant. God knows she could use a break."

Ellie laughed again as they heard a knock at the door. She opened it to find Sarah there.

"Hi!" Ellie said, and Sarah gave her a hug.

"Are you two ready to go?" Sarah asked. "I have been looking forward to this like you wouldn't believe."

"Absolutely," Ellie said as Chuck walked into the kitchen. "I've tried to talk Devon into doing one of these, but our schedules almost never work out. He had to go in this morning to check on a patient."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Somehow I just don't think he'd be into it. But that's just from what I've seen of him."

Ellie nodded in agreement. "You're probably right. His idea of relaxation is pulling the parachute open when you're supposed to, not five seconds before hitting the ground."

"And what are you two discussing?" Chuck asked as he walked up to Sarah and Ellie.

"Just…talking about our significant others behind their backs," Sarah replied as she gave him a quick kiss. Inside, Chuck wished that kiss could mean something, but he knew Sarah was doing that for Ellie's benefit. Still, how things were now beat the hell out of how things were before dealing with Stavros Demetrios and finding Bryce alive.

"Exactly," Ellie said in support of Sarah. "Now go away so Sarah can talk about you behind your back."

A car horn was heard outside. "That's us," Carina said.

"OK, enjoy your day off, sweetie," Sarah said to Chuck, giving him another quick kiss. She walked out the door with Ellie and Carina.

Chuck waited until he heard the limousine pull away, and then he got on his mobile phone. "Devon, it's Chuck. Ellie's gone. You can come back to the apartment now."

Ten minutes later, Devon entered the apartment with three cups of coffee and a bag of muffins from a café all three of them frequented.

"OK, you're driving me up a wall, Devon," Chuck said. "I went through a lot of hoops to make this work out. What is going on?"

Devon sat in the chair and gestured for Chuck to sit on the couch. "I have to ask you something very important. See, ever since I started dating Ellie, I've…kind of thought of you as that little brother I never had."

Chuck eyed him suspiciously. "Don't you have two younger brothers?"

Devon smiled. "Indeed. Indeed. But you seem like someone who can offer sage wisdom in confusing times. And this is one of those times where I'm really confused, bro."

Devon exhaled deeply and looked at the ground, craning his neck in the process. "Oh, man. This is harder than I thought. But I've…I've been thinking a lot about the way things are between me and your sister. And you're the man…the man in Ellie's family. So I was wondering…can I have your permission…I mean…could I marry Ellie?"

Chuck stared at him in open-mouthed shock. He figured Devon would eventually propose to Ellie, but to have the moment actually upon him became quite daunting. And that was before even taking into account Devon asking him permission to do it.

"Chuck? Is that…is there a 'yes' in there somewhere?" Devon almost pleaded.

"What-wha…Yes!" Chuck exclaimed, finally able to come back to the present. "Yes, you have my blessing."

Devon practically tackled Chuck on the couch to give him a hug. "Thank you. Thank you."

"Breathing…oxygen…" Chuck rasped underneath Devon.

Devon pulled him up and continued the hug. "Thanks so much, bro. Hey, pretty soon I'll mean that literally!"

"Yes, yes you will," Chuck replied nervously, still overwhelmed by the events of the morning. "But why did you need everyone to rearrange their schedules like that?"

"I figured you and Jimmy could help me pick out the best ring to give to Ellie. I mean, you know her better than anybody, and I'm sure Jimmy has good taste." Devon lifted an eyebrow. "Plus it never hurts to try to get a celebrity discount, right?"

"Ha ha, that's true," Chuck replied. "Except it'll be John Casey who will be joining us. They couldn't stop the production for this, so the best we could do is get Carina, Sarah, and Case the day off. Jimmy has a lot of scenes where he's by himself, so those are being filmed today."

"Is John good at picking out engagement rings?"

Chuck shrugged. "No idea. Maybe he's gone through the process before. I don't really know."

There was a knock on the door and Chuck went to answer it. "OK, Bartowski," Casey seethed. "What is so important…" Casey noticed Devon sitting on the couch. "This is not about you?"

Chuck shook his head with a smile. "Devon wants to ask Ellie to marry him and WE are going to help him pick out an engagement ring."

Casey was boiling mad inside. It was bad enough he was going crazy trying to learn his lines for the show this week and was forced to watch Chuck instead of Jimmy, but now he was roped into something he didn't get to do himself so many years ago. Unfortunately, he was an actor as far as Devon was concerned. Not a former Black Ops specialist and not Chuck's temporary babysitter.

"Congratulations, Devon," Casey replied, shaking Devon's hand in the process. Casey wasn't looking to become best friends with anyone in Chuck's family, but he certainly respected Devon for what he did. "Tiffany's, I gather?"

Devon grinned. "Just what I was thinking, John. Gotta like a man who thinks big."

"Yeah, that's me," Casey replied.

"Ready to do this?" Devon handed Casey the other coffee. "Let's head over there."

 _ **Tiffany & Co. – Pasadena, CA  
December 10, 2015  
11:00 AM PST**_

Chuck, Casey, and Devon entered the store. Even Casey had to be impressed with the outlay of expensive necklaces, rings, and watches in front of him. Although truthfully he spent more time eyeing the security system looking for weaknesses.

"What do you think of this one?" Devon asked Chuck, pointing to a traditional Tiffany round-cut diamond.

"I don't even know why you brought us here, Devon," Chuck replied. "You know your rings and you know Ellie prefers simple yet elegant."

"What do you think, John?" Casey stared at the displays but his mind was far, far away. "John? John?"

"Sorry," Casey grunted quietly. He took a perfunctory look at the ring. "Looks good, can't go wrong with that. It's like the Tommy Lee Jones of engagement rings."

"So glad you've done such extensive study on this, Case," Chuck said warily.

A salesperson came up to them. "Did you find a ring you liked?" She suddenly stopped. "You're John Casey. You're on that show. My kids think you're so cool."

Casey gave his best smile, which admittedly wasn't much. "Thanks," he said quietly. He wasn't used to being adored in person. Male fans were spit 60/40 between Sarah and Carina, but the vast majority of female fans thought Jimmy was the hotter of the two. Still, even he appreciated being appreciated. And he could probably get a few dates if he were so inclined. Unfortunately for everyone, he wasn't.

"Would it be too silly if you could sign something for my boys?" the salesperson asked.

Casey gave a conspiratorial grunt. "Guess that depends what you can do for my friend here with that ring," he replied with a hint of smugness.

"Well, given you're here and your friend has excellent taste, let's see what we can do. If you'll come this way, we'll start filling out the paperwork."

Casey and Devon walked to the far side of the display cases where the store's computer was kept. As the salesperson dealt with the purchase, Chuck eyed a customer ledger sitting at the other end of the display case. He caught a glimpse of the first name and began to flash. He saw the image of a man, some redacted documents, and a cache of weapons.

"Dmitry Siljack," he whispered to himself. "Known alias of black market arms dealer, specializing in former Soviet…"

He quickly got out his smartphone and opened the note-taking app. He typed Dmitry's name into it. He checked the other side of the store. Casey and Devon were still busy with the salesperson, and no other customers were there. Chuck grabbed the register and saw the next name, Yuri S. Gorsky. He flashed on that name as well, seeing images of a stairwell and the man's face.

Chuck typed more names: Boris Buturlin, Dmitri Brusilov, Grigory Krylov, Ivan Fyodorov, L.J. Houdyshell, Vadim Kiselyov…

Chuck shook his head clear. "Man, I'm going to have a headache tomorrow." He stood up straight and stretched to shake the flashing loose. Casey and Devon were still working on the engagement ring.

Chuck was about to walk towards them when he took one last glance at the register. He then caught the name of Ilsa Trinchina. He began to flash one more time. He saw an image of a very attractive brunette, a CIA file, and letters in Ilsa's name addressed to someone she called Sugar Bear.

He wasn't ready for the final image, where Ilsa was passionately kissing someone. That someone was John Casey.

His mouth dropped open in shock. "Ilsa Trinchina. AP photographer and rumored lover of NSA undercover agent, whereabouts unknown.

"Sugar Bear?" He put the pieces together and had the biggest grin on his face. "Sugar Bear's girlfriend's in town."

Chuck saved the document on his smartphone as Casey and Devon approached. "Devon, I have to ask Casey something. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not a problem, bro," Devon replied with a smile and handed Chuck the bag he got from the salesperson. "Gotta go use the bathroom. After all, you only rent coffee; you don't buy it."

"Eh, funny," Chuck muttered in disgust as he exited the store with Casey and walked through the mall. "I just had the mother lode of all bad guy flashes."

He opened the document on his smartphone and showed the names to Casey. "Who are they?" Casey asked.

"Mostly Russian, all traveling under aliases, fake passports."

"That means they're arms dealers, money launderers, smugglers…"

"Yeah. Apparently they're all having a douchebag convention down at the Hotel Seville. It was in the guest registry at Tiffany's."

Casey nodded. "I'll run it up the flagpole and see what command wants us to do."

"Wait, there's one name…a name I flashed on, actually…but I left it…her…off the list."

"What the hell are you talking about, Bartowski?"

A smile began to draw itself over Chuck's face. "Does the name Ilsa Trinchina mean anything to you…Sugar Bear?"

Casey grabbed Chuck by his throat, lifted him into the air, and slammed him against the wall. "You say that name ever again and I will end you," he hissed. "Nod if you understand."

Chuck quickly nodded, mostly because he wanted to be able to breathe again. Casey assisted in his nod by slamming Chuck's head repeatedly against the wall.

"Casey," Chuck warbled underneath Casey's death grip. "You're hurting the Intersect."

"What's going on?"

Chuck and Casey turned to see Devon there. Casey immediately let go of Chuck, who dropped back to the ground. Chuck stared at Devon in shock, attempting to find a way to cover for Casey.

"Case was just…there's a scene at the end of the episode where he has to take on the bad guy. He's been nervous all week because he has so much dialogue in the episode, so he was trying to practice. This was the final part right before he…I mean his character, Duke…killed his rogue former commander."

Devon shook his head. "Well then I think you have it down, Big John. Scared the hell out of me."

Casey gave a quiet grunt and walked away. Chuck tried to hand the bag back to Devon. "Dude, you have to hide that for me. Ellie is a bloodhound when it comes to these kinds of things. If I keep this in the apartment, she will smell diamond. You think you can hide it at the studio for me?"

"Sure," Chuck replied, still a little raspy and shaken from what Casey did to him. "Not a problem."

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **December 10, 2015**_ _ **  
4:00 PM PST**_

Chuck knocked on the door to Sarah's room. He was surprised to hear they were already done at the spa.

"Hey there," Chuck said as Sarah opened the door and allowed him to enter. "I figured you three would be at the spa all day."

"Well, something happened," Sarah replied in a mood that made Chuck wonder if the spa had done her any good.

"No, wait. Wait, I know this one. Carina…got a hot masseur who didn't massage her enough and she tried to massage him back in a very Carina way?"

Sarah grinned. "Correct. I think you've been hanging around us a bit too long."

"I would not argue with you on that, although you've certainly tried to make the experience a pleasant one."

Sarah's grin got even larger. "OK, what if Jimmy was there instead of Carina? How would he have gotten us kicked out?"

"He…would have…made so many comments about how ugly he was and apologize to the masseuse for having to touch him that she eventually got sick of it and threw him out."

"OK, how would Casey get us kicked out?"

"Ha, that's a trick question! Casey would never enter a spa in the first place."

Sarah laughed. It was the one thing she missed over the month Chuck and she had their problems. He could always make her laugh, and now that they were able to be friendly to one another, the laughter was back.

"Speaking of which," Chuck continued. "I have some serious business to discuss. Matter of national security. Casey's ex-girlfriend is in town."

Sarah's eyes widened in surprise. "What? How do you know?"

"I flashed. Her name is Ilsa Trinchina. Super hot, super sexy, and staying at the Grand Seville as we speak."

"Does Casey know?"

"Oh yeah. Almost ripped my head off. It must have been a pretty bad break-up. You know, for the longest time I always imagined Casey was built kind of like a Ken doll. You know, downstairs?"

"I shudder to think at what type of woman would go for a guy like Casey."

"I was, uh, I was kind of hoping you'd help me find out." Sarah gave him a doubtful glance. "Ilsa is a civilian. She's a foreign national. The Intersect has, like, nothing on her except for some love letters that I'll now I'll never be able to scrub out of my brain."

"So you want me to go behind Casey's back, reallocate CIA resources, and violate this woman's privacy so you can find out what their story is?"

"Tell me you're not curious," Chuck said with a grin.

 _Damn him_ , she thought. It was still impossible to say no to Chuck's requests. And this one was especially tough because she really was curious.

"Tell anybody about this and I will make you disappear so that it looks like an accident," Sarah warned, although the grin on her face belied that threat. She started typing away on her laptop, attempting to find anything she could about Ilsa.

Her face paled.

"What?" Chuck asked. "What's going on? Can't we get these two lovebirds back together?"

Sarah looked up from her laptop. "I seriously doubt it, Chuck. Ilsa's dead."

Chuck stared at her in shock before a loud knock was heard on the door. He went to answer it, finding Casey on the other side.

"Miller and Slade are here, and Beckman's waiting for us," he said curtly before turning and walking back to the room across the hall. Chuck followed him out with Sarah right behind him. The three entered the hotel room across from Sarah, where the image of General Beckman was already on the monitor.

"We received your report, Major Casey," Beckman began. "Ex-KG, Eastern Bloc thugs, Russian arms dealers. Frankly we're not used to seeing this particular crowd stateside these days."

"At least not since President Reagan won the cold war, huh General?" Casey replied self-assuredly.

"You want us to infiltrate the Grand Seville?" Carina asked, ignoring the evil glare she was getting from Sarah for her antics at the spa.

"They have one of the rooms booked for a private party tomorrow night," Beckman continued. "Getting you in there to do reconnaissance would be difficult. That is a very public place."

"What about the release party?" Jimmy asked.

"What do you mean?"

"We were supposed to have the release party for the five-season DVD box set Sunday night. We just book one of the other ballrooms at the Grand Seville and put out the word the release party is tomorrow night. If any of us are spotted at the Russian party while doing recon, we can give the excuse of trying to get away from the fans."

Beckman nodded in approval. "That will work. Mr. Bartowski, it's up to you to tell us what these criminal agents are all doing in Los Angeles. We'll send all five of you in, but you'll work with Agent Walker in your couple cover. You should have free reign over the hotel. If necessary, press some Russian flesh and see what you can flash on. And uh…good luck."

 _ **Grand Seville Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
**_ _ **December 11, 2015**_ _ **  
6:00 PM PST**_

The team walked into the ballroom, where the CIA did its usual stellar job of preparing for the event. There were banners everywhere and velvet ropes installed where people could stand in line to get photos and autographs with the cast. Unlike the TV rights and DVD sales, which went to fund their missions, the money they made from autographs and photo-ops always went to charity. They alternated between Operation Smile and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Since it was for charity, it was the one time Casey and Carina didn't mind making a public appearance, and Jimmy typically hammed it up to keep the crowd in a good mood.

"I don't get it," Chuck said quietly to Sarah as they readied themselves for the crowd. "If Casey's girlfriend is dead, then who is the Ilsa Trinchina staying at this hotel?"

"Probably somebody traveling with a fake passport," she replied. "It happens all the time in Russia. People die and their personal info gets recycled like aluminum cans."

"My God, that's so horrible. No wonder Casey's so messed up."

"Here," Casey said, handing Chuck a sophisticated pair of glasses.

"Hey, Casey. I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what I said earlier…"

"Drop it, Chuck. You heard the General. We've got work to do."

Chuck looked down at the glasses Casey handed him. "And what's my job, to look like the Terminator?"

"We can't all be at the Russian party at once so we'll take turns being over there. Miller is first. She has a camera on her person. Whatever it sees you'll see in these glasses."

Chuck looked at the glasses again before putting them on. He could see the Russian party in full swing. "Carina's there now?" Casey nodded. "Wow, these things are like having a pair of Google glasses."

"Only they cost $200,000. You break them, I break you," Casey snarled.

Chuck rolled his eyes in aggravation as Sarah led him to an area away from the crowd. Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy positioned themselves throughout the room to sign autographs and take pictures while a pair of assistants sold the DVD box sets.

Carina walked around the ballroom where the other party was going on, the top button on her jacket hiding a tiny HD camera behind it with a wireless feed to Chuck's glasses. She made her way slowly through the crowd, making sure she gave Chuck a good look at everybody.

"Anything yet, Chuck?" she whispered.

"Nothing so far," Chuck replied over her earpiece. "Wait. 10 o'clock."

Carina turned slightly to her left and Chuck saw an image of a man sitting down on a chair talking to a pair of very young and attractive women. He had the same flash he had on Dmitry Siljack.

"I see Dmitry Siljack, the arms dealer." Carina continued to walk through the crowd. Chuck flashed on another person. "Sergei 'Noodles' Romanov, a freelance hitman."

"OK, I'm going to need some help over here," Carina said. "We've got a room full of baddies and they're going to start getting suspicious if I stick around."

"No problem," Sarah replied. "Chuck?"

Sarah looked in his direction and waved him over. "If you'll excuse me a moment," she said apologetically to the small group of fans peppering her with questions.

As Carina went to establish her presence at the DVD release party, Chuck and Sarah walked over to the other ballroom. The two passed by the partygoers holding hands.

"Anything?" Sarah whispered to Chuck.

"Nobody new," he replied. "Just the ones Carina caught."

"JENNIE AND CHARLIE!"

Chuck and Sarah were startled and turned around. In the middle of a boisterous group of Russians drinking and dancing around, a short, bald man waved wildly at them.

"Come! Come!" the man yelled at him. "This is my favorite spy couple!" he announced to the other partygoers. "You see the show?"

The crowd started applauding, and there was no way Chuck and Sarah could walk away at this point.

"We may need a little backup," Sarah said quietly into her earpiece as Chuck and she cautiously approached the crowd.

"Come! Dance with us! Big fans of your show! We love your spy adventures!"

"Well, technically I'm not on the show," Chuck eked out but it fell on deaf ears as the music played louder and everyone continued to dance. Sarah and he didn't have much of a choice now. They joined the revelers in partying.

At the signing party, Casey took a quick look around as he finished signing an autograph. Nobody was waiting to talk to him, but both Carina and Jimmy were swamped. "On my way," he told Chuck and Sarah.

He crossed over to the Russian party and looked around. He saw the partiers surrounding Chuck and Sarah. He checked to make sure his Sig was in a reachable location.

Then he saw her.

She was sitting on a couch talking to a friend. The friend gave her a kiss on the cheek and walked away. She turned and saw Casey. She stared in shock, never believing he would be here.

Chuck looked to his left as he tried to keep up with the dancing and began to flash. He saw the same love letters addressed to Sugar Bear and more images of Casey and Ilsa kissing. It was official: the Intersect had crossed completely and totally into the area of too much information.

"She's here. Ilsa is here," Chuck said to Sarah.

"Are you sure? Where?"

"Look over there," Chuck replied quietly, gesturing to his right.

Sarah saw Ilsa on the couch and her eyes widened. "Casey, stay at the signing party. Jimmy, get in here fast."

"You look just like Sacha!" the short man who waved to them yelled to Chuck. "Fourth cousin on my mother's side!"

Chuck and Sarah turned back to deal with him, but they were too late to wave Casey away.

Casey walked up to Ilsa, who stood slowly at his approach. "Ilsa?" Casey asked in complete shock.

"Oh, my God," she said breathlessly. "You're really here?"

"How did you…how are you alive? No one could have survived that blast. How did you…"

She shook her head sadly. "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"All I remember is, I woke up in a hospital in Grozny two weeks after the blast. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. It took another two months for me to remember my name."

She then touched the necklace Casey gave her eleven years ago. "But I never forgot your face."

"Hello everybody. How are we doing tonight?"

The music and the mayhem died down as everyone turned towards a man standing on the bar and holding a microphone. Chuck flashed right away, seeing images of Soviet tanks, nuclear weapons, oil pipelines, and a flowchart of a Russian crime organization that this person was in charge of.

"Sarah, I think I know what brought all the baddies together. Him, Victor Federov. A Russian oligarch with ties with everything from the mob to a plot to overthrow Parliament."

"Looks like we have some surveillance to do tonight," Jimmy said, who had walked up to Chuck and Sarah during his flash. "I'll call Beckman and have the local office bring over all the toys."

"What brings you to Los Angeles?" Casey asked Ilsa. "Why-why are you here?"

"Please," Victor said to the crowd. "I'd like to introduce you to a woman who will make me the happiest man on Earth by becoming my wife. ILSA TRINCHINA!"

Ilsa turned as a spotlight shone on her. She pasted a smile on her face and walked to Victor, leaving Casey in absolute shock


	11. Sticking to Your Strengths

_Hello. I must concede this chapter didn't take me that long to write because it had the most material that was show canon of any of the chapters thus far. A few minor tweaks had to be made here and there, but nothing serious. It's mostly from the story Chuck vs. the Undercover Lover but it has a few minor elements from Chuck vs. the Marlin as well (you probably already know which ones). And of course, all material from the show remains the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions._

 _I'm still trying to work out the logistics of the season 2 episodes that will be in this story. The only thing I do know is that most of the episodes in chapter 2 will be skipped apart from ones relevant to this story or ones that have a very fascinating sub-arc. You'll see as we go along._

 _If you have suggestions for what should remain in this story from season 2 (and how you'd handle it in this AU), please let me know._

 _Thanks_ _, and please leave reviews!_

* * *

 _ **Grand Seville Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
December 11, 2015  
9:15 PM PST**_

Chuck walked into the ballroom. The fans had left an hour ago and Casey was the only one there. He had procured a bottle from one of the hotel bars and was currently easing the pain of the evening with some scotch. Chuck wasn't entirely surprised to see Casey looking like he needed a friend…if Casey was even capable of such an emotion. Still, the image of Casey's reaction to Victor Federov announcing Ilsa was his wife-to-be was burned into his mind. And if it hurt him this badly, he couldn't even begin to fathom how much hurt Casey was going through right now.

"Hey…buddy," Chuck said as he approached Casey. "How are you feeling?"

"How am I feeling?" Casey replied.

"Yeah, uh, you know, about what happened earlier?"

Casey straightened up in his chair. His guard was completely up. It even had multiple levels. "Our mission was a success. You IDed Victor Federov, Walker, Miller, and Slade are setting up surveillance even as we speak. In short, I feel fan-eff'in-tastic."

"Well…OK. I-I mean, I guess…uh, you know, I was referring more to the you-and-Ilsa situation. Thought maybe you'd want to talk about the fact that the girl you thought was dead isn't actually dead."

Casey downed the shot in his hand and refilled the glass. "No."

"Great. Great, good. Really good session here, Casey. Really feel like you're making a breakthrough. Look, I just…I just want you to know that I'm a good listener, OK? So, if you ever want to talk about anything, or use me as a sounding board for your emotions, well…"

Casey took several cocktail napkins, rolled them into a ball, and shoved them into Chuck's mouth. He moved away from the bar and walked towards the opposite end of the room with the bottle in tow.

"Great, just wonderful," Chuck said in frustration as he pulled the napkins out of his mouth and followed Casey. "Come on, just give me something…anything. Where is she from? Or where did you two meet?"

Casey turned around. "Why is this so important to you, Chuck? Why the hell do you care so much about me and Ilsa?"

"I don't…I don't know, man, OK?" That wasn't exactly true. It still shocked him Casey had a hot girlfriend like Ilsa once. Chuck had a big marlin on his line and didn't want to play catch-and-release. "I just…I-I think it would be nice to know that you had a life before…this. I just figured, if a guy like you can find love…no offense, Casey…then maybe there's hope for me, too. Maybe this whole spy business isn't as screwed up as I think it is."

Casey shook his head with a grunt and started to turn away. Chuck was livid.

"OK, you know what? If you want to go through life all emotionally constipated and alone then suit yourself. I'll let you get back to protecting the greater good, you freakin' robot! And don't bother giving me a ride home. I don't want you to miss the chance of taking down a terror cell because you were giving me a lift!"

Chuck started to storm out of the ballroom. Casey slunk into a chair and took another swig from the bottle. "I met her in a flower market. In Rome. I left a fiancé fifteen years earlier to join an elite ops group. They faked my death. I didn't want to be close to anybody after that. But that day in Rome…Ilsa was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen."

Chuck turned in open-mouth shock. Not only did he land the marlin, it was now stuffed and mounted on his wall.

Slowly his shock turned into an ear-to-ear-grin. "I knew it…IT'S ALLLLIIIIVVVEEEE!"

~/^\~

Jimmy finished connecting the last of the monitors to the computer and powered up the system. He had already hacked into the hotel's cameras so observing the public areas was no problem. However, none of the rooms had surveillance on them, so they would have to plant their own for those. He printed a list of the people Chuck had already identified with their room numbers.

"Federov is in the Bridal Suite on the 16th floor," he told Sarah and Carina, opening a case with 2 dozen surveillance bugs in it.

"I'll wire that floor," Sarah replied. "Carina, you take the 15th, and Jimmy will take care of the rooms here on the 14th."

Sarah and Carina took a copy of the guest list, enough bugs for their respective floors, and an electronic card device for picking the door locks. Jimmy grabbed a similar set for himself, and the three went out to set up the surveillance.

~/^\~

"Sure, it was great. Amazing. You know, we had what we had, but it's over," Casey said quietly, the alcohol having loosened him up enough to tell Chuck the entire story. "I never thought it would happen to me again. Honestly, I didn't deserve it after what I did to Kathleen. But Ilsa didn't really care. It's over now, though."

Chuck looked at him in surprise. "So, that-that's it? You're just going to let her walk back out of your life?"

"Seems like the smart play, Chuck," Casey replied, even though both of them knew that wasn't what Casey truly wanted. "After all, nice girls don't marry corrupt Russian oligarchs."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but nice girls don't go around marrying guys like you, either." Casey gave him a look. "G-Man assassin? International spy? I mean, pardon me for saying it, Casey, but at least on paper, you're kind of an unsavory dude."

Casey nodded in agreement. "Granted. But Ilsa never knew what I did for a living. She didn't even know about the old show. That was easy to hide from; I was just a cameraman then. I wouldn't meet anyone on the team until six years later. Walker and Larkin were just out of college, Slade was still locked up, and Miller was undoubtedly seeing the world on ten screws a day."

Chuck shook his head and gave a little laugh. "All of those are true. Even Carina, sadly. But that's my point. What if Ilsa doesn't know what her fiancé, Victor, does for a living, either?"

Casey straightened in his chair, only it wasn't because he was putting his guard up again. "What are you saying I do?"

"Stick to your strengths, buddy! Come on. You're a fighter. You got to fight for her!"

Chuck got up from his chair and held out his hand. "Come with me if you want to live…again."

Casey rolled his eyes and knocked Chuck's hand away. He got up and the two took the elevator to the 14th floor.

"This is a terrible idea, Chuck," Casey said as they got out of the elevator. "We shouldn't be here. I was supposed to take you home. Can we just go…"

"Negatory," Chuck replied in an authoritative voice. "We have passed the point of no return. No retreat, soldier."

"This isn't a mission," Casey hissed. We're just two guys sneaking down a hall like a couple of numbnuts."

A door opened ahead, and Jimmy emerged from one of the suites, having bugged the last of his rooms on the 14th floor. He saw Chuck and Casey and rolled his eyes. "Why are you two still here?"

"Don't even try to tell me I need your permission to work," Casey growled.

"Uh, you need Sarah's permission," Jimmy replied. "She told you to take Chuck home for a reason. You need a night off after what happened. Setting up surveillance isn't that complicated."

"Actually, I suggested it," Chuck replied. "Maybe…maybe I could flash on some stuff. Some stuff…some cool stuff or some things or whatever."

Jimmy knew he was full of it. "Or maybe you talked Casey into spying on his ex."

Jimmy shook his head in aggravation. He knew he wouldn't win an argument like this against Chuck, especially since he wanted to see if Casey could get back with Ilsa, too.

He handed Chuck a keycard. "Surveillance is set up in the laundry room. Second door on the left on the other side of the elevators. I'll go check on the ladies."

Jimmy turned and went to the stairwell. Chuck and Casey went back down the hall and entered the laundry room. There were thirty different camera angles to observe. Fifteen of them came from the security feed of the hotel, the rest were from the bugs Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy were planting. Most of the hotel occupants were sleeping off the party, but a few Russians had call girls in their rooms. Casey took it in stride, but now Chuck understood why Casey thought they were a couple of numbnuts.

"Um, Casey?" Chuck asked after twenty minutes.

"What, did you flash?" Casey replied.

"Look who's hitting the bar the night before her own wedding." Chuck pointed to the shot of Ilsa drinking and put it up on the main screen. "Now, does that look like the face of a woman who's happy about getting married?"

Casey stared at Ilsa. Chuck was right.

"Where's she going?" Chuck asked as Ilsa changed locations in the bar to somewhere more secluded. "Look, look, look, look. This is your chance, buddy! This is your chance! Look at her, Casey! She's just sitting there waiting for you."

Chuck looked at Casey. He thought he had seen everything since getting the Intersect, but nothing prepared him for this. "Wait a second. You're scared, aren't you."

"Don't be an idiot," Casey grumbled as he got up from the chair and stopped looking at the monitor.

"Kemo sabe, come on, man. Look, you don't want to spend the rest of your life hating yourself for what you didn't have the guts to say tonight. OK? Believe me. I know."

"Huh," Casey grunted. He couldn't deny Chuck had a point. If Ilsa shot him down, he'd be no worse than he was right now. He had to take a chance. On top of which it grated Casey to no end that anybody would accuse him of not having guts, especially the annoying nerd in front of him.

"I'm heading down there," he said, his voice finally finding some resolve. He went to the door.

"Proud of you, soldier," Chuck replied, giving Casey a salute.

"Knock it off, moron." Casey departed for the bar.

~/^\~

Sarah walked down the hall to the Bridal Suite. It was the last bug she had to plant. Federov had a few bodyguards on this floor, so her list of rooms to bug was a bit longer than either Carina's or Jimmy's. She reached the door and took out her skeleton keycard to pick the lock. From around the corner, a bodyguard walked up to her.

"Hey, this is a private floor," the bodyguard said. He then recognized who Sarah was and put the pieces together. He grabbed his radio. "U nas yest' narushitelya (We have an intruder)!"…

He never got the message out as someone delivered a hard shot to his shoulder blades from behind. He collapsed unconscious to the ground.

Despite the rescue, Sarah was not happy. "You always seem to forget I lead this team and can take care of myself," she said to Jimmy in irritation.

"And you always seem to forget half the frickin' planet can recognize your face instantly," he retorted as he pocketed the bodyguard's radio and picked him up.

She got on her radio. "Carina, you'll have to deliver the package to the Bridal Suite. Jimmy and I have a body to take care of."

"I'll need a few minutes," Carina replied. "This floor is swarming with horny Russians and they think I want to party."

"Dammit," Sarah said to Jimmy. "Why does she always have to do this?"

"Uh, two things," Jimmy replied. "One, everybody knows she's single while you have a boyfriend, and two, this body isn't getting any lighter. Casey's at the surveillance desk. Have him do it."

Sarah eyed him oddly. Casey was supposed to be taking Chuck home, but there was no time to deal with that. "Casey, plant a bug in the Bridal Suite," Sarah said into her radio. "Jimmy and I have a body to take care of. Key's in the sconce by the door."

Chuck, looked wide-eyed at the monitors. He didn't want to tell Sarah what Casey was doing and he prayed Jimmy wouldn't say anything, either.

"Casey, do you read me?"

Chuck looked around and figured he had nothing to lose at this point. "Yeah, uh, copy that," he said in a guttural voice in an attempt to imitate Casey. "On my way."

Chuck grabbed one of Jimmy's bugs, sprinted out of the laundry room, and took the stairs up the two floors to the 16th. He pulled the keycard out from behind the wall sconce and entered the Bridal Suite. He tried attaching the bug to a nearby light, but he instantly removed it, figuring every last person in the place would see it.

He then saw a briefcase on the desk. He went over to it and tried to find the catch to open it. However, a side drawer opened. He leafed through the paperwork and found a document from the French Secret Service, the DGSE. It contained a picture of Ilsa. He had a flash, seeing images of Ilsa's passport, a more detailed DGSE file on her, and a security video of her slitting the neck of a man with whom she appeared to have been romantically involved.

He didn't have time to think as he heard both Casey's and Ilsa's voices outside. He panicked and ran for the bed, getting underneath it as quickly as he could.

~/^\~

Sarah and Jimmy arrived at the laundry room, Jimmy put the unconscious bodyguard on the ground as Sarah looked at the monitors. She then turned to Jimmy and looked ready to kill him.

"What is going on?" she demanded.

"What are you talking about?" he asked in full denial.

Sarah pointed angrily at the monitor, which showed the hotel security camera on the 16th floor. Jimmy walked over to the monitor to see the shot of Casey and Ilsa kissing in the hallway.

He shook his head in exacerbation. "Aaah, hell."

~/^\~

"These stupid keys never work," Ilsa said as she gave Casey a kiss and unlocked the door to the Bridal Suite. She entered first and made sure Victor wasn't there. "Come here." She grabbed Casey and pulled him into the room, the two in permanent lip-lock. She pushed Casey towards the bed.

"Oh, Ilsa," Casey panted.

"Oh, Casey," she replied, equally turned on at this point. The two fell on the bed, and the bedsprings almost nailed Chuck in the face. If he wasn't feeling regret earlier about pretending to be Casey and planting the bug, he was really feeling the regret now.

"I missed you," Ilsa purred.

"I missed you, too," Casey said in response. Chuck wished he was anywhere else in the world right now. And when his phone started ringing, he really wished he was anywhere else in the world right now.

He tried to silence the call from Sarah, but it was too late. Casey was looking at him from above.

"Bartowski," Casey murmured. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Listen, I'm-I'm very sorry. I know this is very awkward, but Ilsa is a bad girl. She's a very bad girl."

Casey was stunned and went back up with his weapon…only to discover the gun Ilsa had pointed at him proved Chuck right.

"Drop the gun, Sugar Bear," Ilsa said in a very cold voice.

Casey was not used to being caught in a compromising position. Usually, he was the one to cause the compromising. "Mind telling me what a nice girl like you is doing with a gun, Ilsa?"

"Same thing as you, Casey," she replied evenly.

Chuck got out from under the bed. "I tried to warn you: she's a spy."

"Who do you work for?" Casey demanded.

"Why don't you ask your friend? He's already seen my files."

"Uh, yeah I did. She's French Secret Service. But wouldn't that put us all on the same side, kind of, sort of, doesn't it?"

Casey looked ready to kill Ilsa despite having a gun under his chin. "You lied to me."

"Says the energy consultant?" Ilsa mocked. "Or the actor, or whatever you say you are?"

"Actually, he does…he does act," Chuck eked out, trying to vouch for Casey. "I mean, he did this really big scene earlier today…"

Casey and Ilsa ignored Chuck. "What about the bomb in Grozny?" Casey demanded. That 'I never forgot your face' garbage?"

"Oh, that bomb," Ilsa replied dismissively.

"Ilsa!"

The three turned to the door when they heard Federov's voice.

"Quick, hide," Ilsa told Chuck and Casey. Casey didn't look convinced. "You have to trust me."

Casey relented and got under the bed with Chuck as Federov opened the door. "Ilsa…Ilsa!"

She lay back on the bed and pretended to be as drunk as he was. "Baby…"

He threw his keycard away and got his shoes off. "Where have you been hiding, Ilsa?" He climbed into the bed with her. "I can't wait any longer. How about we start our honeymoon _now_?"

He fell on top of Ilsa. "Oh, Victor!" she screamed. He started kissing her neck.

Casey readied his gun. "Don't even think about it," Chuck quietly growled. "You don't know who's on top."

Thankfully, Victor passed out right away. Ilsa extracted herself from under him and leaned over the bed.

"You guys have to get out of here before he wakes up," Ilsa told them.

The two pulled themselves out from under the bed and left the suite in silence. They returned to the laundry room on the 14th floor. Sarah was waiting for them with a temper that could melt steel, Carina had a huge grin on her face, and Jimmy looked like he just received the ass-chewing of his life.

"What were you two doing?" Sarah asked with enough smoke coming out of her ears to set off the sprinklers.

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
December 12, 2015  
11:00 AM PST**_

The cameras were rolling as the final scene was shot. Most of the work had been done yesterday before the DVD party, but they had to get the final scene filmed where Duke was going to kill his former commander and Lance had to stop him.

"ACTION!" Director Fred Toye shouted.

Lance grabbed Duke, who was brandishing a knife that would make Crocodile Dundee wet his pants. "You can't do this."

"Out of my way, McCall," Duke growled.

"Hey, you want revenge. Nobody could blame you for wanting that. This bastard killed your wife, almost killed Jen and Jill, and put me in a damn coffin! He has to pay for what he did, but not like this."

"You think he deserves a trial?" Duke growled. Anybody else would have backed off, but Lance had a thing for loyalty.

"We got him, Duke. He'll be staring at metal bars every day until he's dead. Don't give him the satisfaction of getting the best of you! You'll throw away everything that matters to you and it still won't bring back your wife."

"Get out of my way, now," Duke ordered.

Lance grabbed his arms. "I can't let you do this. Think about your team. Think about your future!"

Duke grabbed Lance and tried to throw him out of the way to no avail. Lance tried to push him back from where his former mentor was being kept. Duke finally shook himself loose from Lance.

"Don't try to stop me," Duke warned him.

"Don't do this!" Lance yelled and tried to grab Duke again.

Duke swung hard and knocked Lance to the ground.

"GODDAMMIT, CASEY!" Jimmy screamed as he held his eye. "Warn me first if you don't plan to pull your punches!"

"CUT!" Fred yelled. "What are you doing, John?"

Two assistants went over to Jimmy, who was still on the ground. One of them applied an icepack to his face.

"It's…" Casey muttered, looking at the ground. "My fault."

Fred eyed Casey warily. "Let's take lunch now. Back at one o'clock, everybody!"

The buzzer sounded to end filming and the word spread filming would continue at 1PM. The two assistants helped Jimmy to his feet and led him to his dressing room. Chuck followed Casey to his.

"Uh, what's going on there?" Chuck asked him. "You want to talk?"

Casey collapsed onto the couch and held his fingers over his forehead. "Is it related to last night?"

"Well, uh…yeah."

"Then I don't want to talk about it."

"You'd prefer…to punch out innocent people?"

"Slade probably had it coming anyway."

"Listen, Casey…"

Casey bolted up from the couch. "No, you listen. Whatever you thought existed between me and Ilsa, you were wrong, all right? That person has gone back to being dead to me."

There was a gentle knock on the door. Chuck turned around and saw who it was.

"Dead woman knocking," Chuck said gently. "I'm going to see how Jimmy is doing."

Chuck left the dressing room as Ilsa slowly entered. "Are you OK? I was watching that scene. You really nailed your friend. I hope that wasn't about me."

"How did you even know I was here?"

"It didn't take much to put the pieces together." She held up the bug Chuck tried to implant last night. "Your partner, Chuck, is not much of a spy."

Casey grunted in agreement. "Why are you here?"

"I didn't want to leave things the way we left them last night."

"With you getting plowed by a drunk Russian crime boss? You should get used to that."

Ilsa steadied herself and ignored Casey's nasty quip. "We've been investigating Victor Federov since the Paris commuter train bombings back in '02. My agency has tried everything to take him to trial, but his organization is airtight. Totally legit from the outside. The only way we could take him down was…"

"By screwing it out of him?" was Casey's malicious retort. "How, uh…French. If you are French."

"Casey, please…"

"I make one call and you, Victor, and half the Grand Seville are packed on a plane and shipped off to the nearest detention center of my choice."

"You're not going to do that."

"Really? Why is that?"

"That would be unprofessional. And that's not you."

Ilsa looked into his eyes. She could feel the hate coming from Casey. This wasn't what she wanted. He had been one of the only pleasant things she experienced in her fifteen years with the DGSE. But now even that bridge had been burned.

"I wish things could be different," she said quietly. "I'm sorry, Casey."

She took his hand and put the necklace he gave her in it.

"Goodbye."

Casey stood in complete silence as Ilsa turned and walked out of the door.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 12, 2015  
2:45 PM PST**_

Chuck arrived at the apartment and was ready to crash. They finished the scene thirty minutes ago. This time, Casey did pull his punches playing Duke and they had completed the episode. Some makeup was used to cover the developing black eye Jimmy had, but it was enough to get through. Sarah escorted him home, mainly so she could read him the riot act again for what Casey and he did the previous night.

"Just the bro I'm looking for!"

Chuck jumped back in fright as Devon greeted him at the door. "Must you do that?" Chuck asked him with not a little annoyance.

"I've got the plan for the proposal! But I need a few things from you."

"What do you have in mind?"

"I'm going to take Ellie out to dinner, then I'm going to bring her back home to have her favorite dessert, pecan pie. Then I'll have a bottle of champagne at the ready, get down on one knee, and pop the question. Dude, she won't see it coming!"

"Sounds very well-planned. But why do you need me?"

Devon handed him a list. "I need you to pick up these items after I take Ellie to the restaurant. You can't do it before or she'll get suspicious. Everything is ordered and paid for; you just have to get it and set it up."

Chuck looked at the list. "OK, I can get these."

"And you have the ring, right?"

Chuck was silent for a moment. "Yes! Yes, absolutely. Not a problem, Devon."

Devon gave him a hug. "Oh, man. This is, like, the biggest night of my life. I hope nothing gets screwed up."

Chuck returned Devon's embrace. Certainly he could understand Devon wanting everything to work out perfectly. But he couldn't remember the last time something went without a hitch.

 _ **Toluca Terrace Apartments – Burbank, CA  
December 12, 2015  
7:00 PM PST**_

Chuck knocked gently on the door to Casey's apartment. Unlike his co-stars, Casey preferred renting a one-bedroom that was near O.C. Studios and only a few blocks from the hotel where they were set up. Certainly the place was quiet enough, which Chuck figured had to be the biggest selling point for Casey.

Casey opened the door and stood aside to let Chuck in with a touch of irritation. "What do you want?"

Chuck wished he could say he was surprised by what he saw, but the way Ilsa left him earlier in the day had clearly put Casey in a deep funk. Not to mention only walking around in boxer shorts and an unbuttoned shirt.

"A lot of scotch and a little Neil," Chuck said as _Love on the Rocks_ blasted out of Casey's iPod speakers. "Everything OK, buddy?"

Casey slumped into the only chair in the room, a very comfortable recliner. "Just enjoying myself a little R&R."

"Mm-hmm."

"Want a drink?"

"No, no. Thanks, though. I really appreciate it." He gave one of his nervous laughs. "No, just uh…just thought I'd check in on you, you know. What, with Ilsa getting married in an hour and…"

"Thanks for reminding me." Casey tipped his glass towards Chuck then raised it for a toast. "Here's to John Casey dodging another bullet."

He downed the shot as Chuck sat on a crate next to him. "It's not like I want the wife and kids and the little league practice and the minivan and the Costco runs on the weekend."

Chuck laughed at that image but suddenly stopped. "Yeah, really? You don't? 'Cause I…it seems to be that you'd kind of be into the whole American dream."

Casey shook his head and sat up in his recliner. "Nah. I do what I do so all those other slobs out there can have it."

"What…what would you say your dream is?"

Casey smiled and laid back in the recliner again. "You're looking at it," he said proudly as he took a large bite from a candy bar.

"That's…that's…no, Casey. That's sad. Even I think that's sad, and you've seen the people I used to work with. Come on, there's a lot more to you than this. OK, you're not exactly Brady Bunch material, but what's wrong with you doing something for yourself? Do something or meet someone that will make you happy? It doesn't have to be Ilsa; there's plenty of women looking for a guy like…well, what you'd bring to the table."

Casey huffed. "You really are a crazy optimist. None of us have life figured out. That's probably why we're so good at our jobs, because we're shit in our personal lives. Walker falls for Bryce and forgets how to be a spy, Miller will mount anything that moves, and Slade could be at the Playboy mansion with an instruction manual and still not know what to do. Me…well, now you know why I do this job instead of doing the whole settling down thing."

Casey stood and pulled the necklace he gave Ilsa off of a bonsai tree. "Besides, it's not like Ilsa left me empty-handed."

"What's that?" Chuck asked, pointing at the necklace.

"Just a cheap little trinket I used to think meant something."

He tossed it on the table, and the locket on the necklace broke. A small circular object rolled out of the locket. Chuck picked it up and began to flash, seeing images of a turtle, Soviet tanks on parade, and the specs for the bug that was around Ilsa's neck the entire time.

"It's an RX-77 long-range audio transmitter."

Casey sat up in the chair and stared at the bug. "Someone was listening in on Ilsa?"

"With a Russian-made bug," Chuck said, the alarm in his voice growing quickly.

"That means they heard last night. That means Victor knows she's a spy!"

Casey bolted up from his chair to grab his gun and car keys.

"Whoah, uh, hey Ca-Casey, Casey, Casey, Casey. Hey hey hey hey! Where are you going?"

"To stop a wedding, Chuck," Casey slurred as he tried to put on his holster.

"No, no, no. No you're not, no you're not. Scotch and driving? Very, very bad combo and…and as far as I know, also illegal."

"You're absolutely right." Casey slapped the keys onto Chuck's chest. "You're driving."

Casey ran for his bedroom. "I need pants!"

 _ **Grand Seville Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
December 12, 2015  
7:30 PM PST**_

Chuck and Casey ran into the main entrance, Casey stumbling left and right from the effects of the alcohol he drank.

Chuck got out his phone and dialed. "Sarah, Victor planted a bug on Ilsa. He knows she's a spy. She's walking into a trap. Get everybody over here."

"On my way," Sarah replied. She ran to her car and called Carina and Jimmy.

Casey and Chuck got out of the elevator on the 16th floor. Casey pulled out his gun despite still being drunk, which didn't make Chuck feel any better. They walked down the hall to the Bridal Suite.

"How do we…" Casey started. "Wait, that keycard Sarah gave you…"

Chuck stared in surprise and then patted his pockets. "Right, I still have it."

He pulled the keycard out and inserted it into the lock. Casey nodded that he was ready. Chuck removed the key and opened the door. Casey went charging in with Chuck right on his heels.

Ilsa wasn't there. But Victor was with several armed men. They took Casey's gun and Chuck's smartphone.

"I assume you're with the bride's party?" Victor asked.

~/^\~

Sarah ran into the lobby of the hotel and began to look around. She didn't see Chuck, Casey, Ilsa, or Victor Federov. There were, however, several people in tuxedos and evening dresses walking towards the outdoor pool.

Carina and Jimmy ran into the lobby a moment later. "Anything?" Carina asked Sarah.

"The ceremony will be by the pool but I haven't seen anyone else," she replied.

"We better find them fast or the term 'shotgun wedding' will have a whole new meaning," Jimmy said.

"You look for them at the ceremony," Carina said. "Jimmy and I will go upstairs. Weddings never start on time, and we might get lucky. Jimmy, see if you can get any of the bugs on your smartphone."

Sarah ran for the pool while Carina and Jimmy went to the elevators. Jimmy went through the CIA-designed apps on his smartphone to locate the program he needed.

~/^\~

"Ow! Ow, that's tight."

Chuck and Casey were tied up back-to-back in chairs by Victor's men.

"You make for a handsome groom," Victor told Casey, who was placed in a tuxedo. "It's a shame to ruin the suit."

"Ruin it how, exactly?" Chuck asked. "How would you ruin it? With bullet holes or blood or…"

"Shut up, Chuck," Casey growled.

"Shutting up."

"Where's Ilsa?" Casey inquired.

"Waiting at the ceremony," Victor answered. "Quite a woman, huh? I'm going to miss her."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, well. At least we get to enjoy our wedding night, huh?"

"Leave her out of this."

"I have another proposal. I was so moved by listening to you and Ilsa say goodbye, what if I told you you get to keep the girl?"

"Casey, do you want to tell me what's going on?" Chuck asked in confusion.

"In fact…" Victor continued. "…how would you and Ilsa like to go on my honeymoon?"

"I love that idea," Chuck replied. "I don't even have to go."

Casey's eyes narrowed. "You mean let me die in your place? What did you have in mind, Victor? A plane crash over the Pacific? A fiery wreck that leaves nothing behind but our two charred corpses?"

"Three corpses. Your friend will play the role of pilot, or maybe one of those man-stewardesses? I'm sure your girlfriend will find someone else, Mr. Carmichael. If she really is your girlfriend."

Victor straightened up and fixed his tie. "If you'll excuse me, my associates have come to see me married. I would hate to disappoint them." He smiled and pointed at Casey. "You guys…"

He turned and walked out of the suite with two of his men. The rest of Victor's men stayed behind and sat down at a table across the room, keeping a sharp eye on Chuck and Casey.

~/^\~

Jimmy finished setting up his smartphone to listen in with an earpiece. He kept switching between one bug and another. Most of them were silent.

"Anything?" Carina asked as the elevator was almost to the 16th floor.

A grin spread across Jimmy's face. He set his phone to record the conversation. "Just Victor explaining how he's going to screw over his associates to Chuck and Casey. Chuck must have Ilsa's bug on him."

Carina took her gun out and cocked it. "Let's get ready. This should be interesting."

~/^\~

"Casey, I don't want to die as a man-stewardess," Chuck whined.

"Relax," he replied. "I think I see a scenario where we both get out of here with acceptable losses."

"What exactly is your version of acceptable?"

"Breaks and punctures, possible loss of a limb, no major organ damage."

It wasn't what Chuck wanted to hear.

~/^\~

Sarah looked through the crowd at the ceremony. Victor was waiting with the Justice of the Peace for Ilsa to walk in. She knew she was running out of time. She dialed Chuck's phone.

She was surprised to hear the ringtone that he set for her number: _Sara Smile_ by Hall  & Oates.

As Ilsa walked to the center aisle, apparently unaware Victor knew she was an agent, Sarah observed a man get up quickly and answer his phone, walking to a row of bushes out of sight. It was poetic justice he was the same bodyguard who found her last night.

"My turn this time," she said as she walked up behind the man. He tried to throw an elbow, but she nailed him with a back kick, sending him crashing into a wall. She pulled out her gun and put her shoe on the man's throat.

"Where is Chuck?"

~/^\~

Casey looked across at the men sitting at the table. "Hey, comrades! Mind if I ask you fellas a question? Where did you learn how to tie people up? A _Rocky & Bullwinkle_ cartoon?"

That got one of Victor's men up. "I don't think that you're helping right now," Chuck hissed.

"No wonder you lost the Cold War. Couple of girl scouts could tie people up better than this.

The man walked towards Casey with a snarl.

"Casey, what are you…?"

Casey lurched forward and head-butted the man, lifting Chuck's chair up in the process. "Whoah!" Chuck screamed.

Casey swung around, and Chuck inadvertently kicked the man in the face. Casey kicked a chair towards a second man, tripping him.

"Like you said, Chuck, I'm sticking to my strengths," Casey said as the adrenaline kicked in.

A third man sent a spinning kick at Casey's face, who was undeterred. The man followed it up with a punch to Casey's stomach and his head, which snapped back and nailed Chuck in the back of his head.

"Oh, that had to hurt," Chuck groaned as he felt the pain.

The man tried to throw another punch but got Casey's skull instead. The man recoiled in pain, and Casey kicked the man back, sending him crashing into a lamp.

"Baddie at six o'clock!" Chuck yelled.

Casey turned to face him, gave him a kick to knock him back, and then spun hard again. Chuck finally got wise to what Casey was doing and landed a vicious kick to the man's face.

"Oh, how you like me NOW, sucka!" Chuck shouted in triumph.

Casey kneed one man back and spun to take out another man, only to be nailed by a nasty elbow. Chuck and Casey fell to the floor still tied together. Chuck kicked upward to send the man back and both tried to get up.

"Casey, Casey!" The man went after them. Casey turned to face him and took a kick to the stomach which knocked Chuck and him onto the balcony. Chuck almost went over the railing.

"Oh, high! It's so very high!"

Casey tried to fight his way back in, but the man was getting the upper hand, knocking Casey back several times in a row with consecutive punches. Each time, Chuck was forced further over the balcony. He was barely hanging on.

"Get him! Get him!"

The man sent a kick to Casey's face, then a second, and a third. Casey was dazed and couldn't keep his balance.

"I can't hold us! I have very weak thighs!" Chuck screamed as more of him was pushed over the railing. "Casey! Casey!"

"Last chance," Sarah threatened the man who had Chuck's smartphone. "Where is Chuck?"

The entire crowd heard a high-pitched squeal as Chuck and Casey went over the balcony railing. Both of them yelled in terror as they fell sixteen floors.

They landed in the pool.

Sarah knocked out the man who had Chuck's smartphone as Casey came up to the surface with Chuck in tow. The two exited the pool.

~/^\~

As Carina and Jimmy exited the elevator, they heard the screams coming from the Bridal Suite. They sprinted down the hall and got to the door. They readied their guns and Jimmy kicked the door open. Carina charged inside as Chuck and Casey went over the balcony. The man who sent them over immediately pulled out his gun but Carina was too fast, drilling him with three consecutive shots. Jimmy came in behind her and looked to his right, opening fire at a man who tried to aim at Carina. Carina opened fire at a third man but did not see the two hiding behind the curtains. They drew their weapons.

Jimmy dropped to the ground with both guns and nailed the two men hiding behind the curtains.

Carina turned around and looked in complete shock at Jimmy, who was bug-eyed and clearly in pain.

"When the hell did you learn how to do the splits?" she asked in amazement.

"I didn't!" Jimmy said in an octave many levels above falsetto.

~/^\~

Casey stepped out of the pool and walked purposefully towards the middle of the ceremony. The party guests were shocked and Ilsa was in awe.

Unfortunately, all of Federov's associates turned their guns on him.

"Hope I'm not too late to object to this union," he said in defiance.

"Take these two to my plane," Victor told one of his lackeys. "And strangle them."

"They're not going anywhere," Sarah said with her gun aimed right at Victor's head.

"Really? Who's going to stop me? One little girl with one little gun?"

Sarah took a glance at Ilsa, who nodded. Sarah held her hands up and slowly put the gun at her feet.

"Casey, this is unacceptable!" Chuck whispered fearfully.

"Shut up, Chuck," Casey ground out.

Sarah kicked the gun towards Ilsa, punched out one of Victor's associates on her right, and took his gun.

Ilsa caught the gun and put it to the back of Victor's head. "Try two little girls."

Victor stared for a moment before a hint of a smile came across his face. "Lucky for me I have a lot of friends out there. This is a minor setback at worst."

" _How would you and Ilsa like to go on my honeymoon?"_

" _You mean let me die in your place? What did you have in mind, Victor? A plane crash over the Pacific? A fiery wreck that leaves nothing behind but our two charred corpses?"_

" _Three corpses. Your friend will play the role of pilot, or maybe one of those man-stewardesses?"_

The crowd looked up into the air and then towards the DJ. Carina was there playing the recording Jimmy captured explaining how Victor planned to swindle his associates. All of the weapons aimed at Chuck, Sarah, and Casey were now pointing at Victor.

Ilsa cocked her gun. "Still a minor setback…Victor?" she said with a smile.

Casey nodded in approval. "She looks good with a gun."

 _ **Grand Seville Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
December 12, 2015  
8:45 PM PST**_

Sarah and Carina supervised the apprehension of Victor Federov's associates. Processing him was the easiest capture they ever made; he practically begged to be taken to France rather than be on the streets of Moscow now that so many killers and criminals wanted him dead. Chuck watched everything from the table, taking the occasional glance at Casey and Ilsa, who obviously had reconciled.

"We're all set," Carina said as she walked up to Casey and Ilsa. "We'll have Victor on a private flight tomorrow and you can take him back to Paris."

"Not too early, I hope," Ilsa replied before giving Casey a mean 'come hither' expression.

Carina smiled and walked over to Jimmy, who had an angry scowl on his face and held two large icepacks to his groin. She whispered something in his ear.

"Aaaaaaagh!" Jimmy screamed, clutching at his groin even harder. "Knock it off! That wasn't funny the first three times you did it!"

Chuck and Sarah turned in surprise. "What exactly happened up here?"

Sarah shrugged. "Just Jimmy doing something stupid to save Carina again." She then walked up to Jimmy and also whispered something in his ear.

Jimmy roared in pain enough to make the room shake. "Goddamn it! Cut that out!" Sarah and Carina couldn't help but laugh. "I am SO out of here!" Jimmy spat as he walked gingerly out of the room still holding the icepacks to his crotch.

"And I thought I had a rough day," Chuck said.

"He'll be fine," Sarah replied. "We get on his case a lot, but he's a tough guy." Sarah grabbed his arm. "Come on, let's go get some dessert somewhere."

Chuck's eyes widened. "Oh, my God! I totally forgot about Ellie and Awesome!"

"What do you mean?"

Chuck pulled out the list of items Devon asked him to pick up. "Devon is going to propose tonight, but I was supposed to get all of these things and set them up while they were at dinner!" He checked his watch. "Oh, God. I've totally ruined this!"

"No!" Sarah couldn't believe Chuck fell sixteen stories, helped capture one of the biggest criminals in Russia, and all he could think about was ruining a marriage proposal.

She grabbed the list. "We'll get these things right now. I'll help you."

Chuck shook his head. "Most of the stores are closed by now. We can't do this."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "I've got a Porsche and mad break-in skills. We're doing this."

Sarah grabbed Chuck's hand, and the two ran out of the hotel room.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 12, 2015  
9:45 PM PST**_

Devon opened the door to the apartment and allowed Ellie to enter first. His eyes widened.

"Uh, you know what? I forgot to bring in the mail earlier," he told Ellie.

Ellie rolled her eyes in mild annoyance. "I'll go get it."

Ellie walked out of the apartment to the mailboxes, and Devon began to panic. He started looking around the apartment in desperation.

"Here! Here!" Chuck whispered quickly as Sarah and he ran into the room. Sarah handed Devon a single red rose and started throwing rose petals all over the floor. Chuck put the pie and the champagne on the table and ran into the kitchen to retrieve a pie server, a pair of plates and forks, and two champagne flutes.

They heard the door click open and ran for Chuck's room.

"Wait!" Chuck whispered in a rush. He ran back and handed Awesome the engagement ring. Chuck and Sarah exited out of Chuck's window and walked around the apartment to the window just outside of the living room. They watched Devon get down on one knee and propose to Ellie, who was already in shock at seeing the rose petals, champagne, and pecan pie. And given she was in tears as Devon put the ring on her and she embraced him, it was clear her answer was 'yes'.

Chuck and Sarah stood there with smiles on their faces, especially Sarah. She had to concede she never expected to be part of something like this. But what she told Bryce rang even more true now than it did when she said it. She wasn't a lone wolf, and she was no longer Langston Graham's wildcard enforcer as she was once described. She was a leader of a team so loyal to her, they also became her best friends. And no matter what situation came up, no matter what the danger, whether Casey's gruff nature, Carina's libidinous attitude, or Jimmy's insane teddy bear persona got her hackles up, she always could rely on them to take care of her and each other.

And now she was protecting an asset who cared very deeply about everyone in such a short time. She knew she was a very lucky agent.

"God, she looks so happy," Chuck said quietly as they watched Ellie and Devon kiss.

"Yeah, she does," Sarah replied with a smile on her face it would take forever to fade.

"It's…everything they've been through because of me…"

Sarah took his hand. "Chuck, don't. Do not condemn yourself. You've done everything you can to help them. And it's clear you always have. You didn't ask to be the Intersect, but you've done a wonderful job with it. And once it's out, there isn't anything you can't have. You deserve it."

Chuck looked down at the ground and smiled abashedly, squeezing Sarah's hand in the process. "You want to come in with me?"

Sarah shook her head. "Oh, it's family time."

Chuck looked her in the eyes. "I know."

She gazed at him. She saw a different look in his eyes. It wasn't the look she was used to seeing when an asset wanted a relationship with her to be more than just a cover. This was the look of someone who wanted her to have something, to belong to something. She realized he wanted her to be part of his life, one way or another. And in that moment, she wanted the same thing. She didn't know where it would lead, but she knew she wanted a part of this life. Away from the world of espionage, away from the show, a whole new beginning.

She squeezed Chuck's hand in response and the two went inside to congratulate the newly engaged couple.

 _ **Grand Seville Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
December 13, 2015  
10:00 AM PST**_

Casey and Ilsa walked down to the lobby of the hotel. They spent a wonderful evening together and even ordered room service…both last night and this morning. And even a couple of times during the night.

"Thank you for helping me, Casey. And thank your friends for me," Ilsa said.

"You've got some skills," Casey replied with a raised eyebrow.

"As do you. And on missions, too."

"Wish you didn't have to leave so soon," Casey said quietly as Ilsa held his hands.

"I was ordered to wrap this up quickly," Ilsa replied. "After what happened in Paris, the DGSE has a lot of work on their hands. I have a deep cover assignment on the Syrian-Turkish border."

"I'm jealous. Take out a few terrorists for me, will you?"

Ilsa smiled. "You got it." She gave him a kiss. "I hope to return someday."

Casey cradled her face in his hands and gave her a passionate kiss. "I'll be waiting."

She gently caressed his face. "Goodbye, Casey." She turned and walked towards the exit.

"Ilsa?" Casey called out, which prompted Ilsa to turn back to him. "I'm glad you're not dead."

Ilsa gave him that devilish smile of hers, the one that got Casey's motors running, before exiting the hotel.

His mobile phone began to ring. Casey saw Graham's name on the Caller ID.

"This is Casey," he said.

"Good news, Major," Graham said. "The new Intersect computer is almost complete. We'll be ready to bring it online in the next few weeks."

"That's excellent news, Director."

"Operation Bartowski is almost over."

Casey hung up his phone. He thought he would be jumping for joy when they announced the Intersect was ready and Chuck would no longer be needed.

But he wasn't.

~/^\~

Graham hung up the phone and turned to the man sitting in his office.

"You know what to do. That's what Division 7 is for. Once we've verified the Intersect computer is working normally, your team is to eliminate Chuck Bartowski. He's just gone from valuable asset to a high security risk. If Walker or any of her team tries to stop you, kill them too."

"Yes, sir," the man replied and walked briskly out of the office.


	12. No Guns, No Mission, No Spies

_Hello. I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. I've been trying to get things organized at home and I've been working to get a full-time job. And of course, it's Christmas time so I've been trying to find temporary work to buy gifts for the family. I hope to have the next chapter out before the end of the year. It'll be the second half of Chuck vs. the First Date. These two chapters follow the show canon fairly closely (apart from a few changes), but the next parts of the story go off-canon a bit. And those of you wondering if Carina will be getting involved more in the story, that's coming up. Also, Chuck will make an important decision for the team that will hopefully reflect how different he was in Season 2 compared to Season 1._

 _The season 2 opener was one of my favorites because of Michael Clarke Duncan, who of course played Mr. Colt. I have never heard a negative word said about the man. I even liked him in_ Daredevil _and I remember my mother telling me he was the best part of_ The Green Mile _. R.I.P. Michael. Everybody misses you. And we still haven't found any oil on Uranus. :-D_

 _Anyway, please read and review. Whether or not you like a story, a review tells the author you are interested in the story, and that's what counts the most. Hope you like the chapter, and have a Merry Christmas!_

* * *

 _ **Los Angeles, CA  
December 17, 2015  
12:30 AM PST**_

"Before you do anything rash, I think you should know that I have the Cipher!"

"Hand it over right now."

Given the man was holding Chuck upside-down out the window of a warehouse four floors up, he wasn't in much of a position to argue. "Don't you think we should discuss terms first?"

And when the man, who was even taller than Chuck's 6'3" form…and about 150 pounds heavier…pulled him up by his shirt with one hand, Chuck was certain he was a dead man. He may have even wet his pants a little.

"Now…who are you?"

"You know what? You probably wouldn't believe me."

The man let go of Chuck's shirt and grabbed his tie, which made Chuck tip towards the ground again.

"Oh! "Oh!"

"Last chance," the man said in a threatening tone.

Chuck didn't know what the hell to do. This guy would never believe his story. HE still didn't believe his story. Three months ago, he was just a Nerd Herder at Buy More. A nerd who was given all of the secrets of the government and became the Intersect. Then he met Sarah Walker, Hollywood star. She liked him, and he thought she was wonderful…to say nothing about being incredibly beautiful. He then met her co-stars, her friends on the show. The gruff, hard-nosed Casey, the sultry Carina, and the lunatic laugh riot Jimmy. And then he found out the people who played spies on a popular TV show really were spies, and they were there to protect him from the bad guys. Thanks to them, he survived an attack by two dozen enemy agents before becoming the hero himself, saving those people in the hotel from a bomb that was about to go off.

And that was the first night.

His life had been turned completely upside-down ever since. He helped take down one of the most elusive terrorists in the world, saved his sister's life, found out Bryce Larkin got him kicked out of Stanford to keep him away from the spy life, and brought down the biggest boss in the Russian underworld. But beyond that, he also helped Casey reunite with his former love, laughed at Jimmy's misfortunes with the Hollywood crowd, and even saved Sarah's life when she was poisoned.

And that kiss…

He never felt a kiss like that in his entire life. He knew there was a connection between Sarah and him. But he also knew she was not good with relationships. Her relationship with Bryce broke her heart, and he understood that. He could live with being friends with her as long as it was her job to protect him. Maybe someday…

But the large man dangling him out the window made that someday suddenly very bleak.

"Chuck! My name is Chuck! And see, the thing is, I kind of work for the CIA and the NSA in my off hours when I'm not working at the studio, and this is kinda sorta a second job for me. And though I know I don't look it, being lanky of build, you should know I am probably the most important intelligence asset in the world."

The man looked at him. "Chuck, that is the single dumbest story I've ever heard."

"That very well may be, but if you drop me, there are a group of people who are going to be very, very upset."

The man didn't look at all impressed. That is, until the door behind him exploded. They flew open, and Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy entered with guns drawn as if they timed it to the second.

"What the…" the man said, not expecting in his wildest dreams to be facing four actors.

"Let the geek go!" Casey yelled.

"Wait!" Sarah interjected. "Not out the window!"

"Aren't we picky."

Carina rolled her eyes. "Really, you two?"

The man looked at Chuck and then at the four people in front of him. He took Chuck and threw him through the air. Chuck knocked Jimmy over and fell on top of him as the man grabbed a rope hanging outside the warehouse and slid down it.

"How many times do we have to tell you to stay in the CAR?!" Jimmy growled underneath Chuck.

"You know, it's NEVER safe in the car!" Chuck groaned, still trying to shake off his latest near-death experience.

Casey and Carina went to the window to fire at the man, but he was well out of range. "Well, did you get it?" Casey asked Chuck. "Tell me you got it."

Chuck got up and held the small square case in his hand as he helped Jimmy to his feet. "I got it! Of course I got it. It's me."

Casey walked past Chuck, snatching the Cipher out of his hand. Sarah gave him a smile.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
December 17, 2015  
2:00 AM PST**_

"Excellent work, team."

The five were gathered around the video monitor as Director Graham and General Beckman heard their report regarding the recovery of the Cipher.

"Our transporters will be taking the Cipher out of Los Angeles," Graham said.

"General, what exactly is the Cipher?" Sarah asked. "Mercenaries break into an NSA lab and this is the only thing they take?"

Beckman and Graham looked at each other. "The Cipher is the artificial brain for the new Intersect computer," Beckman replied.

That got Chuck's attention. "The _new_ Intersect?"

"We've been working on a new one ever since the original Intersect was destroyed," Graham said. "The Cipher is the final piece."

"Uh, wait. Time out, time out for just a second here. What happens to me, the old Intersect?"

"In 72 hours, the new computer will be online and Operation Bartowski officially comes to an end. We'll develop an exit strategy to get you off the show and away from your cover as Sarah's boyfriend. You'll be done with us. No more briefings, no more missions…no more spies."

Chuck stared at the screen in complete shock. He thought this day would never come. And truthfully, he didn't know how to feel about it. Certainly he wouldn't miss the constant danger and the possibility of death at any time. But to go back to being an ordinary person, the thought filled him with as much fear as staying in danger.

And he'd never see the four people in front of him again. Especially Sarah.

He never bonded with a group of people like this in such a short time. Certainly not with Bryce or Jill. Outside of Morgan, he never felt as close to others as he did to these four. He could still picture Jimmy shoving Sarah and he out of the way and taking on that SUV to protect them. He remembered Carina shooting it out with the bad guys in the lecture hall at Stanford to allow him to escape. And it still made him smile when Casey and he were tied up by those Russian mobsters and fought them, even if they did fall into a pool from sixteen floors up. And that kiss with Sarah right before they were going to die…he couldn't possibly forget any second of that night. How intense, how electric it was.

He looked at the four. They didn't appear to be pleased with Graham's announcement either. Not even Casey or Carina. He wondered if they felt the same way about him as he did about them.

"Enjoy the rest of your life, Chuck," Graham said before the monitor went blank.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 17, 2015  
3:00 AM PST**_

Chuck walked through the courtyard with Sarah. She wasn't sure if she noticed, but he was trying to walk as slowly as he could. If he wasn't going to see Sarah again, he wanted whatever time he had left with her last as long as possible.

"Are you OK, Chuck?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm uh, uh, I mean I don't believe it, but I'm great, actually."

"Well, you're going to get your old life back."

Chuck laughed. "Yeah, I was starting to think the four of you were going to be my spy protectors forever. Or whatever the adult version of forever is."

"Don't tell me you're going to miss all of this," Sarah said with a grin.

"No," Chuck quickly replied before reconsidering his hasty answer. "I mean, I don't think I'm cut out for a job where you can disarm a bomb, stop CIA data from being stolen, or jump off of a building."

"Well, you could have fooled me."

"That's very kind of you to say, but I think my girlish screams in the face of danger kind of give me away."

Sarah smiled again. That very smile Chuck always liked to see. He knew he wouldn't miss the danger, but the woman in front of him was something he wasn't sure he could live without.

"I'll certainly miss the four of you," Chuck said with an abashed look. "That gruff exterior of Casey, which we both now know contains a gooey center." Both of them laughed at that. "Carina, Jimmy, they're great. And…"

Chuck fell silent and nervously stared at the ground. He was starting to feel that tension again where he wanted to be more than just a pretend boyfriend with Sarah. But he knew he had to put that away.

"How will they explain us breaking up?" Chuck asked.

"We'll come up with something," Sarah replied. "Don't worry, Chuck. Neither of us will look bad as a result. The last thing I would ever want is for anybody to think even a little badly of you. I'll take the heat if it has to be that way."

Chuck smiled. "Wow, it's the first time I'll get the 'it's not you, it's me' speech and I'll know it really wasn't me."

Sarah laughed at that. "So what happens now? You're almost free. What are you going to do next?"

"Well, you know, I'm sure they'd take me back at the Buy More…"

"Chuck, can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"You can do _anything_ ; I've seen you in action. And I'm not just talking about the bomb defusing or standing up to the bad guys. I mean, anything you wanted, you can have."

"I don't know. It's kind of hard to think of what I can do given what I've seen from the four of you."

Sarah shook her head. "Chuck, we're not a group of superheroes. None of us have some magic skill set we were born with. We just trained to be spies and do that for a living. We have decades of experience among of us, but you walked right into this with no training and no idea what would happen. And not only have you survived, you have thrived. You've done more than most agents could hope to do in their entire careers."

Sarah gently took his hand in hers. "You even saved my life."

Chuck looked down at the ground in embarrassment. "I'm pretty sure you still have the lead in the whole 'life saving' department, Sarah."

Her smile went up to full wattage. "I never kept count, Chuck."

As Sarah turned to return to her car and Chuck entered his apartment, a man observed them from the shadows. He took a few notes on his smartphone. He then dialed a number.

"I'm in Los Angeles," he said to the person on the other end of the line. "I have the target located."

"You're on hold for now, Agent Gruber," Director Graham replied. "You will wait until we've verified the new computer is online and functioning correctly in approximately 72 hours. Then you'll terminate Bartowski."

"Understood."

"Might I suggest you scout the team. I want to keep the body count to a minimum, but I have a hunch Walker, Casey, Miller, and Slade will not react positively to this."

"Should it be necessary, I will take care of them."

"Do NOT underestimate them. They're the best team of agents in the United States for a reason."

Director Graham hung up the phone. Karl Gruber was Divison 7's best wetwork man. And Graham hoped Chuck would be the only person to not walk away from this. But if he had to order the execution of his sister, her new fiancée, his Buy More co-workers, or the team he put together, he would not hesitate.

~/^\~

Chuck only got a few hours of sleep, but he didn't need them anyway. The smile on his face was permanently etched in stone. Not only would he be done with the spy world, not only would he not have to worry about bad guys chasing him or be just seconds away from bombs blowing him up, but a little while ago, he realized something very important.

In just over 48 hours, Sarah wouldn't be his protector anymore.

As he walked into the bathroom, his mind was racing. He had to come up with the perfect way to ask Sarah out on a real date. This was probably his only chance to do so. Surely Sarah and her team would be off to another part of the globe after this, and the best he could hope for was a tiny smile gracing his lips whenever Jen Burton and her friends were battling evil in some part of the world, knowing they would really be taking on the bad guys wherever that would be.

He wiped the fog off of the mirror, wondering why there was so much of it. And then he found out why the hard way.

"Morning, Chuck," Devon said from inside the shower…with Ellie hiding behind him in total mortification.

"AAAHH! My eyes! I'm blind! I'm blind!" Chuck covered his face and quickly ran out of the bathroom.

~/^\~

Chuck sat quietly at the table eating his cereal. He was quite tense, as was Ellie. Devon was entirely oblivious to their discomfiture.

"OK, uh…first, uh, first of all, Devon," Chuck finally managed to eke out. "Congratulations on…on the…whatever God gave you there. Second of all, the door was not locked so I'm not a complete pervert. And third of all, this is just another reminder of why I need my own place."

"There's no rush, Chuck," Ellie replied, far more calm now that Chuck broke the ice. "It's great having you here. But maybe you're right. You make a lot more money these days, right? We could help you look for some place really nice. Something that will impress Sarah. I'd imagine she's stayed in some beautiful places, so you'd really have to step up your game."

Chuck nodded. "Maybe you're right. I mean, I've only been seeing her a few months. I've been thinking about stuff, uh, like my life and where I am right now."

"Unburden yourself, Chuck," Devon replied. "Where's that head of yours?"

"I…I don't know. I just think…I need to…make my life more stable…get a real job."

"But you have a real job now, Chuck," Ellie said. "And you have a great girlfriend. Do you even realize how much you have now? And you earned it. You deserve it."

"No, you're right. It's just that…all of it could disappear tomorrow." Chuck paused and tried not to let any expression show on his face. If only Ellie and Devon knew how true that statement was. "I think I have to be ready in case things change. Maybe go back to school, go get my degree."

"What happened?"

"You know when you meet someone, and they just kind of…you know…they flip you on your head? Just shake things up a little bit?"

Devon put a hand on Chuck's shoulder. "You're talking about a Mr. Tony Robbins."

Chuck smiled and shook his head. "So close…and yet so far away. Honestly." He looked at the watch that wasn't on his wrist. "Look at that! I have to get to the studio."

He bolted from the table and ran out the door.

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
December 17, 2015  
10:00 AM PST**_

Chuck walked down the main aisle to his computer setup to work on the episode being filmed to start the new year. He wanted to get done early because there was a beach scene being filmed today and he had a look at the script, even though his skills wouldn't be needed for the episode. But the scene looked funny as hell on paper and he wondered if it would be that funny when they actually filmed it.

"Chuck!"

Chuck turned and groaned when he saw who it was. "Morgan, how did you get in here?"

Morgan looked back and forth. "I'd tell you, buddy, but that would sort of lessen the purpose of me being here in the first place." Chuck gave him a look. "Gave the security guard a $50 and insisted that you told me to come here."

"Great, just wonderful."

"Chuck, I need your help, man. I just need five to forty-five minutes of your time. I couldn't do this at the Buy More. Those Large Mart goons are all over the place."

"What are you talking about?"

Morgan unrolled the large blueprint he brought with him. "This. The compound level from Call of Duty. After our last battle with those Large Mart douches, I started to work on this. Planning on how we can take them all out. OK, listen up. Here are the specs, are you ready?"

Morgan took out a telescoping pointer. "23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, seven heavy gunners, four demolitions experts, and enough ammunition to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger. 50 gamers, one call, all ready for battle. With this team assembled…and my plan…I think we can beat them."

Chuck smiled. It didn't take much to understand why Morgan was so likable despite having almost no maturity. "Morgan, you are my new hero."

Morgan smiled at the compliment. "I know, man. And…whoah! DVD bonus material!"

Chuck turned around to see what Morgan was looking at. Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy approached, all wearing swimsuits. He couldn't help but stare at Sarah wearing a black two-piece outfit with so little material, he wondered how it would get past the censors. Morgan, true to his tastes, was actually drooling at the red bikini Carina was wearing, which was little more than red dental floss with three small patches of cloth in strategic locations. By comparison, Jimmy looked almost like a monk in his trunks, but Chuck still figured just as many women in the studio would be watching the scene as the men.

"Morning, Chuck," Carina said pleasantly before turning to Morgan. "Martin, right?"

Morgan was too flabbergasted to even form individual words. "Ca…Carina, you…you…"

"I'm going to go get some coffee while Morgan finishes his sentence," Jimmy said with a smirk. "Anybody want a cup?"

Sarah laughed. "This was the day half the damn studio's been waiting for for a month."

Morgan was still having trouble processing the situation. "Actually, we owe him a picture," Jimmy said to Sarah and Carina. "Can you humor him?"

Sarah and Carina nodded, which put the biggest smile on his face. Morgan handed Jimmy his smartphone and stood between Sarah and Carina. The three put their arms around each other and smiled as Jimmy snapped the picture.

"Great picture," Chuck said. "Hope you have a security code for your phone. You know what would happen if Anna ever saw that?"

That snapped Morgan back to reality. "Oh, man. You're right." He quickly programmed his phone to require a four-digit number to access it. "Good call, Chuck. I should get back to the store. Good to see all of you!"

Morgan took off. Chuck turned to Sarah. "So sorry about that."

Sarah smiled. "It's OK. Jimmy said Morgan was a big help when we had to keep you away from the media when…"

She let the words trail off. Nobody needed to be reminded of how uncomfortable those few weeks had been right before they ran into Stavros Demetrios.

"Sarah, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Of course," she replied pleasantly. "I'll meet you two on the set," she told Carina and Jimmy, who walked down the pathway to where the beach scene was set up. "What did you want to talk about?"

"I…" Chuck began to lose his train of thought. "Sorry, it's hard to talk to you when you are…well…" he gestured abashedly at her bikini.

She laughed, took the robe she was holding and put it on. "I think you bring chivalry to a whole new level."

"Is it my fault?" Chuck replied with a laugh. "Really, have you seen you?"

"OK, fair enough. So what's up?"

Chuck paused and steadied himself. "You want to go on a date sometime?"

Sarah stared blankly at him. "A date? A real date?"

Chuck nodded. "An actual date. Without aliases and spy gear and a mission?"

"Chuck, we went over why we couldn't do this."

"But in 48 hours, you won't be protecting me anymore. The four of you will be off somewhere across the world…probably quelling a revolution with a fork."

Sarah smiled but Chuck could tell her guard was up. "I'm still a CIA agent and there are a hundred reasons why I shouldn't do that."

"What do you have to lose? Before you know it, you'll be gone and off leading the team again. Stopping Casey from shooting anything that moves or dragging Carina home after she has too much fun or smacking Jimmy upside the head for…whatever. I'm sure he'll deserve it. Just think: you'll be off… in the middle of Jakarta in the middle of a knife fight with some evil-doer. And in that exact moment, you're going to wish that you would've spent…one last night of fun with me."

Sarah stared at Chuck but this time, he didn't look away. She could feel her mental objections, all of the reasons why dating an asset was a bad idea fade. This was no ordinary asset. This was someone who never put himself first, who cared as much for her partners as she did.

And those damn puppy-dog brown eyes were too tough to resist.

"OK," she finally said with a smile.

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Tonight. Our first real date."

"Or our second first date."

"No gunfire, I promise."

Sarah gave a smile as she walked down the pathway to film the beach scene.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 17, 2015  
6:30 PM PST**_

Chuck quickly buttoned his shirt…the fourth one he had tried on…and straightened his hair. He was feeling a bit nervous. This was an actual date with Sarah. Just the two of them, no weapons, no mission, and no spy work. He felt a bit of regret that Sarah would be gone in a few days, but he decided to follow the advice he gave her. He could have one last night of fun with her and then he would return to a normal life. The hard part was knowing what that 'normal life' would look like now. He was serious when he told Ellie that he wanted to go back to school and get his degree, now that he knew he could have done that. But other than that, he wasn't sure what he could do or even want to do. Sarah said he was capable of anything. Unfortunately, that didn't make the decision any easier.

He walked into the living room, where Ellie and Devon were laid out on the couch, still in their hospital scrubs.

"Hey, date tonight?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, yeah…we're going to go grab some Chinese food and then maybe hit the Echo after that," Chuck replied.

Ellie turned to Awesome. "Did you hear that, Devon? Do you recognize the sound of a _proper_ date when you hear it?"

"My tank's empty, babe," he replied tiredly.

"That's my future husband," she told Chuck with a tinge of snark behind it. What about you? Any revelations? Any thoughts of what you would do if you weren't on the show?"

"Um, yeah. A few…"

"If you say 'pilot the Millennium Falcon', I will hit you."

"I…why would I say that? That's absurd! I'm going to be a…ninja assassin."

"No, try again."

"Um…Olympic…"

"Uh-uh."

Chuck paused. "Secret agent?"

Ellie exhaled in annoyance. "This is what happens when you sit in front of the television set too long. Seriously, what are you going to do?"

"El, I just came to this decision today. Well, at least seriously thinking about it. I do know I want to finish college, like I said. I want to travel, and maybe Sarah will take me somewhere or I'll go on my own. And I want to learn an obscure language that only really cool people know. But I promise, it will happen."

"Wow, look who's all grown up."

Chuck smiled. He gave her a hug. "See ya, sis. Love you."

"Love you, too. Have fun."

Chuck exited and went to pick up Sarah at the hotel.

 _ **Hilton Hotel – Universal City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:30 PM PST**_

Jimmy took the elevator up to his room on the 11th floor. He still had on his swimsuit from the day's filming and he was exhausted. It wasn't shooting the scenes over and over again that bothered him; it was the crew giving him all sorts of grief about getting to have Sarah and Carina all over him throughout the day wearing almost nothing. It wasn't his fault; the script called for him to go undercover as a high-profile trafficker and they were pretending to be his arm candy. To make matters worse, they had to do an interview with _Entertainment Tonight_ at the end of the day and the studio insisted they stay dressed like that to generate more interest for the episode. Social media had been blowing up ever since ET posted the interview on their Facebook page. Given the public knew Sarah was 'dating' Chuck and Carina and he were just friends, a new hashtag had emerged: _#NeverGetsLaidSlade_.

He went out to the balcony. He could see the lights coming from Universal Studios and CityWalk. Hundreds of people were out enjoying themselves as they got ready for Christmas. He had to smile; he was a bit jealous, actually. He had only celebrated Christmas twice in his entire life…during the last two years. And that was at Sarah's insistence. He wasn't sure what to get everybody, but he figured gift cards couldn't be too bad. Casey bought him a new Glock, Carina got him a half-dozen pairs of silk boxers…one size too small, naturally…but Sarah gave him the best gift. It was a framed picture from the show of Lance McCall carrying Jen Burton out of an exploding building. On the back she wrote, _"To the man who thinks I carry him all the time, proof positive he's wrong. Love, Sarah."_ Casey and Carina received similar pictures…a shot of Duke and Jen back to back with guns drawn and a shot of Jen and Jill kicking ass…with similar sentiments. He had to smile: Sarah always went out of her way to make everyone on her team feel important. It was little wonder why they would go to their graves to protect her.

He turned back to the room…and saw six guns pointed at him.

 _ **The Fox & Hounds Pub – Studio City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:30 PM PST**_

Carina walked into the bar and ordered her usual drink. This was typically her first stop when she wanted to party throughout the evening. She would throw back a couple of Vodka and Red Bulls and take a look at what was out there. If the clientele in here looked hot, it made her more optimistic for a fun evening. Of course, she was already in a bit of a good mood, having tortured poor Jimmy during that ET interview and putting Sarah a little on edge with her not-exactly-chaste flirting with the reporter.

The man next to her was sizing her up. He wouldn't exactly be walking a runway in New York anytime soon, but he might be good for a warm-up act this evening.

"Hello," the man said. "You're from that show, right?"

"Yes, I am," Carina replied. "Are you a fan?"

"You could say I have a vested interest in it."

Carina looked on in confusion until she saw the gun pointed at her. The man was keeping it out of sight to not draw attention.

"Why don't we head outside?" the man said.

There wasn't much Carina could do in the bar without blowing her cover, so she walked outside, hoping she could dispatch of this person quickly and quietly.

Unfortunately, she'd also have to get rid of his two friends in the alley, who also had guns trained on her.

 _ **Toluca Garden Chinese Restaurant – Studio City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:30 PM PST**_

"Wow, this food is good. So how did you hear about this place, anyway?"

Chuck smiled. He knew he picked the right place to go. "Morgan, as a matter of fact. The man has a black belt in dumplings. I trust any recommendation he gives me for food items less than ten dollars."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "So our first date is a Morgan recommendation?"

Chuck stared at her with a big grin on his face. "Wow, no faith in the little bearded man. OK, I think you should know he's always been supportive of our fake relationship. And he's never found it remotely unbelievable that a guy like me could be dating, um…you know."

"What?"

"Um…you know. You."

There was a playful twinkle in Sarah's eyes. "What about me?"

Chuck laughed nervously. "You're really going to make me say it, aren't you." Sarah shrugged and smiled as she continued to eat her noodles. "OK, fine. All right, we'll play it your way. A girl like you. Or more appropriately, a woman like you, considering the fact you can probably kick the ass of every person in this joint. And…a smart one at that. Not to mention cool…and hangs out with some very cool people. And…extremely beautiful. And…you can stop me anytime with the compliments if they're becoming, you know…"

Sarah laughed and looked down. Chuck couldn't believe he actually made her blush. This was going way better than he anticipated.

"No. No, that was very sweet," she replied.

"Sweet. Golly gee, thanks for making me feel like I'm eight."

She laughed again, feeling she made such a good move into agreeing to have a real date with Chuck. He made her laugh more than everyone she had ever met put together. And comedy was a big part of her show cover.

"Well, you're not so bad yourself," she finally said.

"Please, I'm fantastic," Chuck answered in jest.

"Yeah, you are," Sarah replied…and not in jest.

That made Chuck look up from his food and concentrate on her. He was kidding and she wasn't. He felt that tension again, but this time he felt like there might be something more to it than that. After all, like he told her, they wouldn't see each other again and they certainly liked each other.

"What would your team think if they knew we were doing this right now?" Chuck asked her.

"It would probably kill them."

 _ **Toluca Terrace Apartments – Burbank, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:45 PM PST**_

Casey heard the doorbell to his apartment ring. He was expecting the couriers from Washington, D.C. and they were right on time. He grabbed the Cipher and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" he said into the monitor, looking at the image of the man on the other side of the door.

"Messenger," the man replied.

Casey activated the door scanner, which searched for weapons on the person, but it came back clean. Casey opened the door.

"Pickup call placed by one G. Beckman?" the man said.

"Verification code?" Casey asked curtly.

"Morning glory."

Casey nodded and handed the Cipher to the courier. He placed it in a box.

Casey looked around. "Where's your backup?"

The courier put a mask to his face and aimed his other hand at Casey. A powder spray shot out of his sleeve, hitting Casey in the face. The courier left as Casey doubled-over coughing, struggling to take a breath.

He dove for the wall opposite of the door and hit a button on it as blood came out of his mouth.

 _ **Toluca Garden Chinese Restaurant – Studio City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
8:15 PM PST**_

Sarah cracked open her Chinese cookie and read the fortune inside.

"So, does it say where you're…uh…going next? Your new mission?"

"Actually, it does," she replied.

Chuck was amazed. "Really?"

"No, not really." Sarah couldn't believe he fell for that. "Besides, it doesn't work that way. Our assignments could be anywhere. There isn't even a guarantee they'll keep us together, although I'm sure they will. Even the government doesn't argue with success."

"But you…what if they didn't?"

Sarah shook her head. "A CIA officer doesn't get to choose their assignments. Not even us."

He gave her a smile. "You know, I…still have an awful lot of secrets in my head," he said as he leaned in a little closer. "The Lindbergh baby, the formula for New Coke…"

"What are you saying, Chuck?" Sarah replied, leaning in closely as well.

"What I've always wanted to say, Sarah."

Both of them started moving towards a kiss. Right before closing his eyes, Chuck glanced to his right…and wished he never had. He caught a look at one of the patrons and began to flash, seeing images of the man on FBI and Interpol reports for trafficking and smuggling.

"Oh…" he then looked to his left and flashed on a woman at another table, seeing a German police report and several dead bodies, all of them slashed with a knife by her.

"Oh, oh, oh…" he then flashed on the waiter, seeing a Chinese 'Wanted' poster and a picture of the man in a leather coat.

Chuck sat back, his teeth tightly clenched. "Chuck, what is it?" Sarah asked in fear.

"We're surrounded," he replied in exasperation. The restaurant patrons and staff pulling a slew of weapons out confirmed Chuck's theory. "Sarah, you have your gun, right?"

"Nope."

"Why…why not?"

Sarah looked back and forth pensively. "You don't bring a gun on a real date," she whispered quietly.

"Hello again, Chuck."


	13. Carmichael, He's Good

_I was starting to worry that I wouldn't get this chapter in before the end of the year. But I figured I wanted to go out on a good note to end 2015. God knows, I could use it. A big thank you to everybody who reviewed this story so far, and I hope you continue to give it reviews._

 _I made a few changes to the canon in this, which I hope wasn't a big deal. It's hard to know what should stay as part of the story and what shouldn't be. Plus with the dynamic of this story, certain things HAD to change. You'll see as we go along. The parts that remained the same remain the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions, yadda, yadda, yadda._

 _BTW, I had a few questions about Karl Gruber, who I introduced in the last chapter, with some people wondering if he was related to Rafe Gruber from Season 3 of the show. He isn't, but I get the feeling the Chuck writers and I got their inspiration for the person from the same source. After all, how can you hate a movie even "Honest Trailers" doesn't dare to rip?_

 _I'm still not sure what episodes from the second season should remain in this story. "Chuck vs. the Cougars" will be next. As much as I wanted to include "Chuck vs. the Seduction," as John Larroquette was one of the best guest stars this show ever had, I couldn't make it work logically. But Cougars will be in there, and that will be one of the chapters that will have heavy Carina involvement (the others come later)._

 _OK, writer's notes complete. Enjoy and please leave reviews. And I hope you have a wonderful 2016. (If I'm actually conscious on my birthday and St. Patrick's Day, 2016 will be an improvement.)_

* * *

 _ **The Fox & Hounds Pub – Studio City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:45 PM PST**_

Carina looked at the three men, all of whom must have been working for the man who had captured Chuck. And if they sent three just to get to her, who knew how many they sent to get the others.

"Uh-uh," the man who found her in the bar said, pointing his gun at her legs. "Fulcrum warned us about your choice in footwear. It ain't happening a third time."

Carina shrugged and folded her hands in front of her. "You're right."

She shoved her hands into the sleeves of her coat and threw the two daggers hidden in them. They hit the two men flanking her, sending them to the ground. She quickly spun on her foot and sent a high kick to knock the gun from the third man. He went on the attack but she was too quick, sidestepping him and knocking him down a kick to the back of the head. He rolled on the ground and tried to get out his other gun. Carina dove at his first gun, spun, and shot the man at point-blank range. She then shot the other two men as they tried to get up.

"I wasn't wearing those shoes anyway," she said dismissively as she stood. Her mobile phone started beeping incessantly. She saw the emergency callout and her eyes widened. "Shit!"

She took off for her car and headed to Casey's apartment.

 _ **Hilton Hotel – Universal City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:45 PM PST**_

Jimmy looked at the group of men pointing their guns at him. Apparently, whoever went after Chuck wanted the Cipher back and the five of them dead. The gloves were definitely off.

"OK, well I do seem to be in a bit of a pickle," he said carefully and stepped back into the room. "Hey, do you guys remember that scene at the end of _Die Hard_? Bruce Willis shot Hans Gruber and that other guy from the lobby?"

The two men on the outside quickly went over to Jimmy. "You don't have a gun taped to your back," one of them said with a sneer.

Jimmy shrugged and smiled. "I know. That was just a ploy to get you close to me."

Jimmy reached out and grabbed each man by the back of their heads, slamming them into each other. Both of them dropped their guns as they fell unconscious. Jimmy grabbed the guns as he dropped to the floor, firing away to take out two more men. One of the two remaining mercs tried to charge him, but Jimmy kicked the coffee table up to nail him in the face. He rolled to his right just as the last man took aim at him. Jimmy pushed off with his hands and scissor-kicked the man in the face, taking him out.

He got up and looked at the six men on the ground. "Gonna need some more bad guys, I guess."

Outside his room, someone pounded hard on the door. Jimmy ran to the bedroom to put on some clothes and retrieve his weapons. He returned to the living room area just as the door burst open and a dozen more mercs entered. Right then, his emergency callout signal began to wail. One of the team was in serious trouble, but then he hadn't exactly spent the last ten minutes lounging by the pool, either.

"Sorry, guys. No time to talk."

He reached for his grappling hook and sprinted to the balcony. He threw the hook to anchor itself onto the railing and leaped over it as the men opened fire. He swung down four floors and crashed through the window of a room on the 7th floor, surprising a family who was clearly from out of town and on vacation.

"Wait!" the father said in shock. You're…"

"Never know who's gonna drop in around here, am I right?" Jimmy replied as he sprinted for the door to get out of the hotel.

 _ **Toluca Terrace Apartments – Burbank, CA  
December 17, 2015  
7:50 PM PST**_

Casey crawled along the floor of his apartment, completely blinded by the toxin dust and was starting to feel the world slip away.

"CASEY!"

Carina sprinted into his apartment with Jimmy on her heels. Carina rushed for Casey's emergency chemical wash spray while Jimmy flipped him onto his back.

"Atropine, Case!" Jimmy shouted.

Casey weakly pointed to his right. Jimmy looked quickly but only saw a framed picture of Ronald Reagan. Carina returned and sprayed Casey's face clean of the toxic dust while Jimmy grabbed the picture of Reagan and held it high into the air.

"No," Casey garbled as Jimmy smashed the picture to find a syringe hidden in the frame. Carina pinned Casey's arms down as Jimmy grabbed the atropine, dove at Casey, and plunged the needle hard into his chest. Casey started coughing and rasping as the toxic dust was dissipated throughout the apartment. Carina and Jimmy helped him to a sitting position.

Casey picked up the damaged picture of Reagan. "Idiot," he snarled at Jimmy.

"SERIOUSLY?!" Jimmy was beyond livid. "Are you actually telling me you'd rather be dead than for me to destroy a PICTURE of Reagan?!" Casey was silent. "WELL?!"

"I'm thinking!" Casey replied.

 _ **Toluca Garden Chinese Restaurant – Studio City, CA  
December 17, 2015  
8:20 PM PST**_

"Hello again, Chuck."

Chuck thought he was finally out. He was only 48 hours away from being done as a government asset, and his real date with Sarah was going as well as it could. But he should have known better.

"And you are?" Sarah asked the very large man.

"My name is Mr. Colt, and I need you to come with me."

"Now why would we do that, Mr. Colt?"

"Because I assume you find me imposing. Don't worry, be honest. I'm going for imposing."

"Mission accomplished," Chuck said in defeat.

"Well, I tell you what," Mr. Colt continued. "The people that hired me…give ME the heebie-jeebies."

"You know, when you put it in context like that, I…I…"

"Let's go," Mr. Colt said as two of his accomplices leveled automatic weapons at Chuck and Sarah. "We'll take care of the check."

Chuck looked over at Sarah, who glanced down at her plate. Chuck caught the message.

"Are you sure? You know, the moo goo gai pan is very expensive here. So we can probably go Dutch, or…how much do bad guys normally tip?"

With Mr. Colt's attention on Chuck, Sarah slipped her chopsticks into one hand, leaped up, and tried to plunge them into Mr. Colt's neck. But he was too fast, knocking her arm away and putting one hand on her throat as she tried to throw a punch.

"Sarah!" Chuck stood quickly to defend her.

"Move and she dies!" Mr. Colt shouted.

Chuck took a step back and placed his hands behind him. He pushed two buttons on the watch Jimmy gave him. The watch began to beep.

"What is that?" Mr. Colt demanded.

Chuck innocently held up the watch. "Just an early Christmas gift from one of her co-stars. Not as dressy as the Rolex."

"But still has a GPS tracker and homing device in it," Sarah said in defiance.

All of them looked around as they heard a car engine get louder and louder. Chuck looked out the window. "Is that a Crown Victoria?"

"MOVE!" Sarah screamed.

Everybody dove for cover as Casey's Crown Vic crashed through the window of the restaurant and ran over the two people with the automatic weapons.

"Hey, someone order drive-thru?" Casey asked as he got out of the car. Jimmy leaped out of the passenger seat and onto the hood of the car, opening fire at Mr. Colt's associates while Carina ran and grabbed Chuck and Sarah.

"Let's go!" she shouted, corralling them into the back seat.

Casey turned and was punched in the face by Mr. Colt. He fell back into the driver's seat. Mr. Colt tried to go at him but had to dive out of the way as Jimmy emptied both clips in his direction.

Casey shut the door, threw the car into reverse, and floored it out of the restaurant, knocking Jimmy off the hood in the process.

"Are you KIDDING?!" Jimmy shouted. Casey stopped the car. Jimmy leaped over the hood, giving Mr. Colt a swift kick to the face to knock him back again. He quickly got into the passenger side and the car took off into the night.

"Oh! Oh!" Chuck gasped heavily in the back seat as Casey winced in pain from the large ring on Mr. Colt's finger that ended up embedded into his face. "'Somebody order drive-thru'? Huh? Did you think that up as you were racing over trying to save us? 'Hey, maybe I'll say this after I crash into the restaurant'!"

"We have to find out who they work for," Sarah said quickly.

"Fulcrum," Carina replied. "The losers they sent after me dropped their name.

"Well, at least we still have the Cipher," Chuck said in relief.

Casey shook his head. "Yeah, about that…looks like you're still the Intersect, Chuck."

Chuck sat back in his seat. He was completely numb. "Sarah…" he began softly.

"We'll get it back, Chuck," Sarah replied, taking his hand to comfort him. "That I promise."

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
December 18, 2015  
9:00 AM PST**_

Chuck walked down the main aisle at the studio in a fog. He thought he was so close. He was going to be done with car chases and kidnappings and being shot at. He thought he could go back to his old life…or whatever life he wanted if Sarah was correct about what he was capable of. And he would have gotten that one chance to be with her…no guns, no covers, no danger…and who knows what would have happened.

But the morning arrived and everything was the same. Except for the feeling he was never going to get rid of this Intersect.

He turned the corner and walked down the corridor where the dressing rooms were. He passed the four that were meant for makeup and costuming for weekly guest stars and extras and knocked on the door to Jimmy's dressing room. Casey and he were given the two smaller ones while Sarah and Carina had much larger ones. It made sense: the women had more outfits to wear and had been starring on the show the longest.

"Come in," Chuck heard Jimmy call from inside. Chuck opened the door and shut it behind him. Jimmy was on the lone couch in the room reading a script. The room looked exactly like every dressing room he ever saw in a movie or a TV show: a director's chair, a large mirror with bulbs completely surrounding the frame, and a small TV with a DVD player attached to it. Jimmy also had his laptop set up on a desk in the corner.

"Anything?" Chuck asked him.

Jimmy shook his head. "Sorry. They're going over every inch of that restaurant for fingerprints, hair follicles, DNA, the whole nine. Colt got away and none of the ones we were able to arrest will flip on him. I guess they figure he'll do worse to them than we can if they talk."

"Where does that leave me, then?"

"I don't know, Chuck. We have no leads right now. We'll try to find the Cipher. Just be patient with us."

"I'm out of patience!" Chuck walked up to Jimmy and looked down at him breathing fire. "This was supposed to be all over for me! I was supposed to be done being the Intersect and go back to a normal life! I was almost killed twice in two days! Don't tell me to be patient!"

"Chuck, I'm really sorry…" Jimmy began meekly.

"And stop saying you're sorry! Good Lord, you say 'sorry' more than Devon says 'awesome'! I don't want to hear how sorry you are. I want to see you get that Cipher back so I can get out of this! Do you have any idea what this has done to my life? Do you even get what having this thing is like?"

Jimmy finally looked up at him. "Yes. Actually, I do know what it's like. You've had an Intersect in your head for three months; I had one for almost twenty years! When I flashed, I didn't provide valuable information to the CIA. I had pain that made a migraine feel like a hangnail! And I didn't get to go around saving other people and keeping this country safe! They kept my fat ass into a six-by-eight cell for over a decade! The only reason I'm not still in there and got a job as a spy was they couldn't get people to stop trying to kill me or me trying to kill myself!"

Chuck stepped back in stunned silence. Jimmy threw the script on the couch and his head dropped into his hands. "That…that was uncalled for," he said softly. "You didn't deserve that. I am so sorry."

Chuck sat in the chair in front of the mirror. A tiny smile came to his face. "You still apologize too much."

Jimmy looked up slowly, and Chuck's tiny smile morphed into an ear-to-ear grin. Jimmy couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry," he replied in insolence, which made Chuck laugh as well.

"Boy, I bet your happy to spend your days having to guard me," Chuck said sarcastically.

"Far from it, Chuck. What you've done in helping us has been…and I don't just mean defusing bombs or helping us catch terrorists or Russian crime bosses. You helped Casey reunite with Ilsa, you put yourself out there in the public eye and play along to sell the cover, and you even saved a number of lives along the line, including your sister's and mine.

"Trust me when I say I'm not overstating this, Chuck, but you are undoubtedly the best asset we've ever had to protect. Although I will admit that is the very definition of a back-handed compliment."

"You've had some tough ones?"

"To say the least. Most of the time, they're high-maintenance prima donnas who need their ego stroked on a daily basis…if not an hourly one…or they act like they're doing you a favor rather than the other way around. Poor Case, I heard he had to guard some debutante who demanded he walk her ugly-assed Pekinese dog three times a day." Chuck's mouth dropped open in shock. "I know, right? The guy must have liberated thousands of civilians and toppled a half-dozen dictatorships and some little bitch made him walk her furry crap machine? It's crazy."

"Wow. Having the Intersect doesn't seem so bad now. I shouldn't have teed off on you like that."

Jimmy waved a dismissive hand. "You had every right to do it. We said you'd be done with this and we didn't deliver. That's on all of us. But we'll fix this. Promise. We'll do whatever it takes to get you back to the life you want. And given what we've seen you do so far, I hope Nerd Herder isn't it. You're better than that, Chuck. A lot better."

"This from the man who's been photographed with the Hollywood elite and still claims he's a total loser?"

They both laughed at that one. "Yeah, I do seem to be better at encouraging other people than I am at dealing with myself," Jimmy conceded.

"How did you actually get on this team?"

"What? The improv story wasn't good enough?" Chuck shook his head and smiled. "Once they figured out I would stay alive longer if they trained me to be an agent, that's exactly what they did. No more prisons, no more safehouses. I worked for six years on my own until I was brought in to replace Bryce. Carina told me Sarah took his departure pretty hard. Graham figured I was so inexperienced with relationships that there was no way in hell Sarah would make the same mistake twice. And they were right."

"But she still went out on five dates with you."

"Yeah, but thankfully she found out right away I was too much of a wimp to date anybody, much less someone like her. And so my dating history still stands at five."

Chuck shook his head and exhaled. "You are exhausting to talk to…and DON'T try to apologize." Jimmy immediately clammed up. "You have so much more to offer someone than you think, and not just being a great spy."

Jimmy gave a slight chuckle. "I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you how complicated things can be when it comes to relationships. I'm still trying to figure this whole spy game out after eight years. Thankfully, I have some good people making sure I don't screw up."

There was a pounding on the door. "Slade!" Casey's voice called out.

Jimmy pointed to the door. "Even him."

Chuck went to the door and opened it. "We're needed on the set," Casey said.

"Jesus, Case," Jimmy said, getting a good look at the imprint on Casey's cheek. "I thought you were going to see a doctor about that."

"It's fine. Just put a bandage on it and they'll write it into the script."

Chuck took a good look at Casey's face as well. He flashed, seeing images of Mr. Colt, the ring he had on whose imprint was now on Casey, and most importantly, a map of Mr. Colt's hideout.

"I know where they are…where he is," Chuck said quickly.

"What?" Jimmy asked.

"I flashed. I flashed on the scar on Casey's face. It's an emblem for their organization. They have a secret hideout downtown. Warehouse 17 on 103rd Street."

Casey immediately reached for Jimmy's communicator. "Walker, Miller, Code 16. We have a positive ID on Colt's location. Get your gear out; I'll call the NSA for backup." He put Jimmy's communicator back in its charger. "Let's go, Slade. Chuck, you stay here."

"Wait, let me come along," Chuck said quickly. "You've got to bring Charles Carmichael! You remember, debonair superspy who also happens to have the Intersect in his head? You know, me? I can help you guys!"

"Charles Carmichael isn't even your real name, Chuck," Casey growled. "You just made him up. You're not a spy."

"Jimmy, come on! I can do this!" Chuck pleaded.

"Five minutes ago, you were yelling at me for almost being killed twice in as many days and now you want to walk right into a dangerous situation?" Jimmy couldn't believe it. "We have a full tactical team here. We'll take out Colt and find the Cipher. Just stay here, OK?"

Casey and Jimmy left, heading for Casey's Crown Vic.

 _ **West 103**_ _ **rd**_ _ **Street – Los Angeles, CA  
December 18, 2015  
10:30 AM PST**_

The team exited the two large vans in full tactical gear. A half-dozen similarly-clad NSA operatives followed behind as they entered the warehouse. They found a freight elevator and walked inside. Everyone readied their weapons. Sarah stopped the elevator, and Casey and Jimmy threw the door open. All ten of them poured out into the warehouse area and checked every square inch.

"Chuck was wrong," Casey boiled through gritted teeth.

"Or he was right and we didn't move fast enough," Sarah replied.

Suddenly they heard a loud beeping sound. They turned to their right to see several bricks of C-4 along the support beams of the structure attached to a countdown timer.

"EVAC!" Casey screamed.

Everyone ran for the stairs except Jimmy, who sprinted for the detonator.

"Ten seconds!" he shouted. The team stopped, knowing ten seconds wasn't enough time to escape. Jimmy quickly pulled the wires on the timer and crossed two of them together. The timer was shorted out. He ripped the detonator away from the C-4 and threw it at the wall in anger.

"Goddamn amateurs," he spat as he returned to where Sarah, Casey, and Carina were.

"Chuck wasn't wrong," Carina said. "We've been had."

The four agents looked at each other, and the same horrifying thought went through their minds.

"Let's go!" Casey shouted to the team. Everyone immediately left the warehouse.

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
December 18, 2015  
10:30 AM PST**_

Chuck walked outside of the studio and stretched. With Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy gone, the next episode was delayed. That left him nothing to do until they returned. However, he couldn't calm himself down. He wanted the Intersect out of him and be done with the spy life so badly, it was starting to be mentally draining, beyond merely flashing on intel.

He needed a break. He decided to visit the Buy More to see how the search for the new Assistant Manager was going. Morgan told him Big Mike needed the position filled quickly. And leaving Morgan in charge of such an important project was probably not the safest thing in the world to do. Chuck would have had less risk joining the team to capture Mr. Colt.

He got in his car and started the engine. He then felt cold steel against the back of his neck and the audible click of a gun being cocked.

"Drive," the person hiding in the back seat said in a menacing voice.

~/^\~

The team returned to the studio. Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy ran inside to find Chuck while Casey searched the perimeter.

"Where's Chuck Bartowski?" Sarah asked one of the stagehands in a rush.

"He took off," the stagehand replied. "Nobody knows where."

"Walker, Chuck's car is gone," Casey announced over their earpieces.

"Is he at the Buy More?" Sarah asked Jimmy, who was already attempting to track the GPS signal in Chuck's car with his smartphone.

"No, his car is by a warehouse on East 7th Street."

"That was their plan all along," Carina concluded. "Get rid of all of us."

"Let's go," Sarah commanded. The three ran out of the studio to join Casey, sending a message to the strike team about Chuck's location.

 _ **East 7**_ _ **th**_ _ **Street – Los Angeles, CA  
December 18, 2015  
10:45 AM PST**_

Chuck was dragged by two very imposing people to stand in front of an even more imposing person.

"Hello, Chuck," Mr. Colt said. "Glad you could make it."

"Yeah, I really didn't have much else to do today…or much of a say in the matter," he squeaked out as Colt's accomplices took his mobile phone and watch.

"Here's the problem, Chuck. You saw my face and heard my voice. You and those actors. Who apparently aren't just spies on TV. It's a pretty cool setup, actually. But you know what that means, right?"

"That's not a problem. That's not a problem at all. I forget things all the time. Ask my sister, I forgot her birthday. I'll forget my Social Security number. Anything, just ask me, and I'll forget it."

Chuck watched Mr. Colt take off his long leather coat and begin to stretch. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I'm stretching, getting limber," Mr. Colt replied.

"Why are you doing that?"

"So I won't pull a muscle when I break your neck. Maybe you should get limber, too."

Chuck's face went ashen. He turned and slowly headed towards the window.

"Where are you going?" Mr. Colt asked. "There's nobody here to help you. Oh, your friends? That's right. They're already dead. Our hideout was wired with C-4 set to go off on their arrival. See, they walked into a trap. Just like you, Chuck. If that is your real name."

He couldn't believe it. There was no way in hell he'd ever believe Sarah and the team were dead. They had way too much talent to fall victim to a trap like that.

Suddenly, the last thing Colt said made a big light bulb go off in his head.

Chuck turned around brimming with confidence. "My name is Charles Carmichael. I'm a CIA agent and this is MY trap."

Mr. Colt looked quite amused but Chuck was undeterred. "I don't think you gentlemen realize the gravity of the predicament that you're in. My car has a GPS tracker on it and it's parked right outside the building. Your compound is currently surrounded by 23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, seven heavy gunners, four demolitions experts, and enough ammunition to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're outmatched and you're outgunned. Those peashooters you're holding might as well be sharp sticks and strong language."

Mr. Colt kept an eye on Chuck while his associates looked out the window. "Nothing there, boss," one of them said. "Looks clear."

Mr. Colt laughed heartily. "Good try, Chuck."

"Of course you don't see anyone!" Chuck countered. "Who do you think we are, the FBI? The only thing you're gonna see is a muzzle flash followed by an e-ticket straight to hell. So why don't you make the smart choice and hand over the Cipher?"

Mr. Colt wasn't convinced. He craned his neck to get the cricks out and went for Chuck.

"Wait, wait wait wait wait," Chuck said. "Want proof? Hand me my phone."

Mr. Colt shrugged, figuring all of the guns trained on Chuck would make calling for help useless. He handed Chuck his mobile phone.

Chuck dialed a number and put it on speaker for everyone to hear.

"Hey, Chuck," Morgan said over the din of Lester and Jeff fighting it out for the Assistant Manager position.

"Morgan, I'd like you to tell me the exact specs for the team surrounding the compound."

"The whole shebang?"

"The whole shebang."

"Yes, sir. We have 23 infantry troopers, 16 snipers, seven heavy gunners, four demolitions experts. I should tell you, though, I got a little impatient and took out one of the sentries. Don't worry, it was a head shot; he couldn't warn his buddies. You should have seen it, man! It was awesome! His head exploded like a watermelon!"

Mr. Colt's entire team ran for the window. "They must have gotten Fritz," one of them said.

"I thought he was in the can?" another one said.

Mr. Colt was no longer amused. "He's either lying or he's crazy." Mr. Colt went to the window to check for himself. "Check everywhere! Don't let anything get past you!"

He turned back…and Chuck was gone with the Cipher, his watch, and his smartphone. Mr. Colt ran after him in a furious rage.

~/^\~

The team pulled up to the warehouse and exited the vans quickly. Sarah looked up at the building.

"His car," Carina said, pointing at Chuck's car fifty yards away. "He must be in there."

"Casey, take the sixth floor," Sarah commanded. "Carina, fourth and fifth. Jimmy, search first through third. I'll go up to the roof. Everyone else, create a perimeter and detain anybody you find. And call for more backup!"

The four agents sprinted into the building and ran up the stairwells to each of the respective floors to conduct a search.

Casey reached the sixth floor and opened fire on the two men just inside the open floor. Both of them took hits and fell. Casey looked around but found nobody else. "Sixth floor clear," Casey said on his radio.

Carina walked around the fifth floor, which had a similar layout to the fourth floor, where she had found nobody. One of Colt's associates jumped her from behind, knocking her to the ground. He tried to lunge at her but she rolled out of the way and tangled his legs with hers. He fell forward and she jumped on top of him, ending him with a knife in his side. "Fourth and fifth clear," Carina announced.

Jimmy ran up to the third floor after coming up empty on the first and second floors. He walked along the windows when someone opened fire with an automatic weapon, forcing him to dive out of the way. He pulled his own gun out and fired back, nailing the man in the chest. He stood up slowly…only to be tackled by a second man through the window and onto a fire escape. The man had a strong choke hold on him and tried to reach for his knife. That gave Jimmy a window to bring his knees up hard and knock the man off-balance. He got his feet under the man and kicked hard, sending the man over the fire escape railing and down to the concrete below.

Chuck ran along the warehouse, knocking over garbage cans and shelves to block Mr. Colt's path. He hit the buttons on the emergency callout on his watch, praying the team was actually alive and on their way. He looked out the window to see if anybody was coming but saw no one. He turned back…only to see Mr. Colt right in front of him.

"Don't move!" Chuck said, which had no shot of working on Mr. Colt now. "Please don't move?"

Mr. Colt shoved Chuck so hard, he flew backwards through the window and fell onto the asphalt of the roof. Mr. Colt grabbed him by his legs and went to the edge of the roof, holding him upside down.

"Hand it over!" Mr. Colt demanded.

"What are you going to do if I give it to you?" Chuck said in a panic.

"To be honest, I'm gonna drop you."

"See, th-this is what I'm talking about! We gotta work on your negotiating skills! How about this? How about you pull me back up and we discuss this like two rational adults?"

"You know what?" Mr. Colt began.

"FREEZE!" Sarah yelled from behind Mr. Colt with her gun drawn.

"It ain't worth it."

Mr. Colt let Chuck go.

"NOOOOOOO!" Sarah cried.

~/^\~

Jimmy looked up from the fire escape when he heard Sarah scream. His eyes widened in shock at Chuck falling from the roof. He got up on the fire escape railing and leaped across to the other fire escape, grabbing Chuck's arm with one hand and the fire escape railing with the other. Chuck was turned over and swung onto the second floor fire escape.

"Aaaah!" Chuck said, the wind completely knocked out of him.

"Son of a BITCH!" Jimmy yelled in pain as his little stunt separated his right shoulder again. "This is NEVER going to heal!"

"You…" Chuck stammered as he looked up at Jimmy. "You just…"

"Get out of here, Chuck! Go! Now!"

"But what about…"

"GO!" Jimmy screamed through the pain.

~/^\~

Mr. Colt turned towards Sarah, who was still in shock over seeing Chuck dropped from the roof. "Your boyfriend's dead now, baby. What are you gonna do?"

He swatted at Sarah's gun, easily knocking it away. He then tried to throw a punch but Sarah shook off her shock in time to sidestep him and land a back kick at his head. Colt stumbled forward but quickly got his bearings. He threw two more punches at Sarah, both of which she blocked. She tried to send a spinning back kick at him, but he caught her foot and wouldn't let go. Sarah pushed off of her other foot and gave him a shot to the head with it. Colt tried to grab her but she boxed his ears to send him back. She tried to throw a punch but Colt deflected it and grabbed her throat, lifting her high into the air. She started to lose her breath but managed to get her leg up and around Colt's arm and neck and tried to break both, forcing him to drop her. He fell to the ground and she doubled-over coughing profusely, trying to breathe again. He lashed out and tripped her to the ground. Both got up, and Sarah tried to throw two more punches. Colt blocked both and got her into a vicious bear hug. Sarah could feel her back crack as Colt tried to cut off her circulation. Sarah went limp and passed out. Colt dropped her and took a look, but Sarah was playing possum. She kicked at his knees, tripped him, and then gave him a kick to the head. Both of them rolled away from each other, trying to recover from the damage that was done.

"Enough with the foreplay!"

Sarah got to her knees weakly to see Casey and Carina on the roof with their weapons trained on Mr. Colt.

"Step away from the blonde," Casey ordered.

"Ah, you know you have to put those guns down," Mr. Colt said as he stood up, breathing heavily. "Because you're surrounded."

Casey and Carina looked around as a half-dozen of Mr. Colt's accomplices moved in. "Meet the rest of my men."

Mr. Colt laughed maniacally…until Chuck burst onto the roof, followed by the entire NSA team, including two dozen more backup agents.

"Excuse me," Chuck announced. "Excuse me, hi. Sorry to interrupt…whatever's going on here. But Mr. Colt, I just wanted you to meet my team."

Chuck bore the same look of confidence he had earlier when he tried to con Mr. Colt and his men. "Tell me something: do you find them imposing? Go ahead, you can be honest. I was going for imposing."

"Chuck?" Sarah whispered breathlessly, partly from her fight but mostly from shock that Chuck was still alive.

"Carmichael, actually. Agent Carmichael." Chuck turned back to Colt's men. "Maybe you can go ahead and put your weapons down." Colt's men didn't budge. "I said put your weapons down!"

They finally relented. "There you go. And then…and then the hands up to imply your hands are empty."

Casey grabbed Mr. Colt's arms and handcuffed him. "Your boss, Carmichael. He's good," he told Sarah, which earned him a look of disgust from Casey. The NSA team led Colt and his associates to the street.

Sarah turned to Chuck. "Don't worry, I'm fine. And I got the Cipher," he said.

"What, what happened?" Sarah was still in shock.

"You said it yourself; you have the best team of agents in the country," he replied with a smile. "All of you really do know how to protect people."

Sarah shook off the intense stress of the last few minutes and started to look around. "Wait, where's Jimmy?"

Chuck's eyes suddenly widened. "Um…"

Chuck walked slowly over to the edge of the roof and took a peek. Sarah, Casey, and Carina looked as well.

"I'm fine! It's all good!" Jimmy said, still hanging onto the fire escape with one hand.

"How…did that happen?" Sarah asked.

"I'm…still not sure myself," Chuck replied carefully.

~/^\~

Casey boxed the Cipher and handed it to the NSA team leader. "And be careful with that," he ordered as the agent put it in a strongbox and took it to a waiting jet at LAX. After filing a report with Graham and Beckman, they decided not to take any more chances. The new Intersect was going online tonight as soon as the plane delivered the Cipher.

Chuck shook his head. "You were right, Case. I'm not much of a spy, am I."

Casey shrugged. "You duped Colt into letting you steal back the Cipher and delayed them long enough for reinforcements to arrive. You were outnumbered and outgunned but you survived. You may not be a spy but you're certainly no coward."

"Or an idiot," he replied hopefully.

"The jury's still out on that," Casey muttered to Chuck's chagrin.

"Speaking of idiots," Sarah interjected. "We better get Jimmy to the hospital quickly. I don't want him to…"

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!" a scream was heard from around the corner.

"Never mind," Sarah said, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Sarah, can I talk to you for a second?" Chuck asked.

"Sure."

The two walked away from everyone else. "What is it, Chuck?" she asked.

"Look, I know the last two days have been completely crazy. Losing the Cipher, getting it back, losing it again, getting dropped off of a roof…"

"The recap really isn't necessary, Chuck."

"I mean…let me get to the point I wanted to make. I really want to try to have that date again. I mean, you had fun with it, right? At least before I started flashing on a lot of bad guys." Sarah looked down and smiled. "But why not? We're back where we were before. The new Intersect will be coming online, you and the others will get sent somewhere else on the planet, and most of all, you deserve a night of fun."

Sarah stared at him for a moment before a smile drew itself across her face. That very smile that Chuck always wanted to see.

"Tomorrow night?" Sarah asked.

"You're on, Agent Walker," Chuck replied with that boyish charm Sarah found irresistible.

 _ **Unknown Location – Los Angeles, CA  
December 18, 2015  
4:30 PM PST**_

Agent Gruber received the text to contact Director Graham. He had spent the last few days scouting possible locations where Chuck could be eliminated. The studio would have been tough, and there was no pattern he could follow where he could take Chuck down at the Buy More. But he had assignments this difficult before and he always accomplished them.

"Agent Gruber, you have the green light," Graham told him.

"The new Intersect is ready?" Gruber asked.

"They just landed with the last piece, so this has to be done tonight. I want it quick and painless. Chuck served his country with honor and he deserves to die that way as well. Avoid killing anyone else, especially his family, if you can."

Gruber disconnected from the call and went to his kit. He had several liquid toxins that would do the job and leave no trace of their presence. He picked two bottles. One would render Chuck unconscious; the other would kill him painlessly, like Graham ordered. It was the gentlest method he had in his kit.

He checked the time. In order to avoid killing his sister or her fiancé, he decided to wait until all of them were asleep. By the morning, Chuck Bartowski would be dead of a heart attack.

 _ **NSA Laboratory – Washington, D.C.  
December 19, 2015  
1:30 AM EST**_

Graham watched as the technicians slid the Cipher into the new Intersect computer. It was time. Operation Bartowski was finally going to end, and real agents would be given the Intersect. After months of planning and testing, they were ready to go.

The technicians booted the system and left. A group of six agents walked into the Intersect room and stood behind Graham. He typed a series of passwords into the computer. He then put on a pair of protective glasses while the six agents took theirs off.

He activated the Intersect. The lights in the room turned off and the Intersect activated.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 18, 2015  
10:00 PM PST**_

Chuck, Ellie, and Devon sat around the living room discussing Chuck's date with Sarah the following night. Ellie was a bit shocked Chuck wanted to cook dinner for Sarah, given his skills in the kitchen…or horrendous lack thereof. But he wouldn't be dissuaded and Ellie had to admire that. She just wished Devon would cook more meals for her.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" she asked Chuck. "You have many skills, Chuck, but the kitchen is not one of them."

"Oooh, but that's why they call it Hamburger Helper. Hello? It does most of the heavy lifting for me. I want to make that chicken with balsamic glaze. The one thing Dad taught me how to make?"

"But Dad couldn't cook, either."

"And on that note, I'm going to get some rest. Gotta make tomorrow perfect."

Ellie nodded and all three started walking towards their respective bedrooms.

"Hey, I also had an idea for what I want to do. I was thinking Eurorail through Europe, backpacking, that kind of thing?"

"That sounds…" Ellie began.

"Awesome!" Devon finished. "Remind me to tell you about Amsterdam, my man!" He started to laugh until he saw the look on Ellie's face. "Lovely city, lot of canals."

"Good night, Chuck. Love you."

"Love you too, sis," Chuck replied as he walked to his bedroom.

Karl Gruber walked through the courtyard. It was quiet, as he expected. He had a small window of 90 minutes to carry out his assignment. If he was too early, he would have caught Chuck and his family still awake or just having gone to sleep. Leave it too late, and he might have been spotted by someone coming home late from a Christmas party or one of the bars in the area. He had to act fact. Fortunately, the two toxins should do the trick in a short amount of time and give Graham what he ordered for Chuck: a painless death.

He was surprised to find the window to Chuck's room open. Didn't Walker's team tell him how to protect himself? He shook his head in disbelief as he climbed through the window and approached the bed. Killing civilians, especially innocent ones, was not high on his list of favorite activities, but he wasn't paid to be a boy scout. He readied the toxin to render Chuck unconscious.

He heard the faint whoosh of a silenced gun. It was the last thing he'd ever hear as he fell to the floor.

A figure stepped into the room and turned over the body. They recognized the person they just shot and quietly cursed. They put away their gun and took out a tranq pistol. Chuck was shot in his arm, which was out over the covers on his bed. The figure quickly went to Ellie and Devon's bedroom and shot tranquilizer darts at each of them.

They pulled out their phone and dialed a number. "I need you over at Chuck's right now. Bring the big kit. And whatever you do, tell NO ONE. Sarah would go nuclear if she found out the government ordered a hit on Chuck."

The person hung up and started the process of cleaning up and making plans to dispose of the body.

 _ **NSA Laboratory – Washington, D.C.  
December 19, 2015  
2:00 AM EST**_

The room filled with thousands of images. The six agents stared at them while Graham looked around and checked the progress on the monitor.

The power cables and leads began to spark and glow red. The image on the monitor faded out and was replaced with a message: _Fulcrum Thanks You_.

Graham looked up in disbelief as the computer overloaded, sending a power surge through the entire room. The Intersect exploded, killing Graham and the six agents.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
December 19, 2015  
**_ _ **8:00 AM PST**_

Chuck walked to the door when he heard the incessant knocking. He was shocked to see Sarah there.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We have to call off our date tonight. The Intersect was destroyed."

Chuck froze. "But…the Cipher…"

"It was a Trojan Horse. It was a sabotage device. The moment it came online, it exploded. Fulcrum must have the real Cipher and switched it on us."

The reality sunk down hard on Chuck. "But that means…"

"You're still the only Intersect. I'm sorry."

Sarah wasn't sure how much pain Chuck felt about this turn of events, but if he felt even half as bad as she did, he was in bad shape. The theft, the recovery, almost being killed twice, the shock at seeing Chuck be dropped from the roof, all of it had overwhelmed her. And in the end, it was all for nothing.

Chuck eventually looked up. There was even a tiny smile on his face. "I guess I get to keep hanging out with all of you. And I can't say that's a bad thing."

Sarah looked up at him and gave a little laugh. He always knew the right thing to say when he needed to. She put her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I know it's not a bad thing for me," she said softly, her hold on him increasing.


	14. The Four-Pronged Attack

_Hello. Hope everybody is enjoying 2016 so far. I apologize for my tardiness but I'm afraid 2016 is taking early shots at me. Still working to find a full-time job. Hopefully I'll get one soon. On the good side, I seem to be doing well health-wise. Although I'm having the classic middle-aged problem of the weight not coming off no matter what I try. But I'm sure you've been there._

 _The good news is, I managed to work in "Chuck vs. the Seduction" into this story. Of course, because of the setup of this story...mainly the world thinking Chuck and Sarah are dating...several changes had to be made. I tried my best to keep some of the best elements of that story in while integrating it with "Chuck vs. the Cougars." Hopefully you'll like the result. BTW, I did promise more Carina involvement in these chapters. Her big chapter is next while Jimmy gets the emphasis now and drops back for the second half of these two stories. But you'll understand why when you read this._

 _Again, thanks to everyone who has reviewed the story, and I hope you continue to do so. I will try my best to get Chapter 15 out before the end of the month. If anyone from Marvel is reading this, please take note of my not-too-subtle suggestion for who should play Captain Marvel. And I promise, you'll find out who prevented the hit on Chuck. Eventually. :-D_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Unknown Location  
December 27, 2015  
11:00 PM**_

He couldn't believe his luck. Her auburn hair and smoky eyes would drive any man crazy on their own. But throw in that accent and the slinky dress she wore, and he figured it was the luckiest night of his life.

And based on the fact he watched her slip out of that dress to reveal a black lace teddy which accented her tight body, he thought he was about to get a whole lot luckier. It was a very Merry Christmas as far as he was concerned.

She approached him and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a sensual kiss. His hands moved up and down her back. He reached for the hooks holding up her lingerie as she ran her thigh along his hip.

By the time he recognized the click of her switchblade knife, it was embedded into him. He felt her twist it hard, and he collapsed to the rug.

The woman casually wiped the knife on the man's shirt and folded it shut. She put her dress back on and got out her mobile phone. "Did you find it?"

"Yes," the man on the other end of the line said. "It was in his car. The man was not exactly an expert on security."

"Agreed. We'll clean this up, wait a week, and then we'll contact Fulcrum. We'll trade the Cipher for what we want. And then the Iranians will give us our well-deserved payoff."

"Understood, Sasha."

 _ **Washington, D.C.  
January 1, 2016  
3:00 AM EST**_

The figure moved slowly through the living room, having easily disabled the security system and dispatched of the two Secret Service agents who were lying unconscious outside the small but ornate house in the Georgetown section of D.C. After what happened two weeks ago, the intruder…clad in all-black garb complete with a balaclava over their face…wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page.

The person approached General Beckman's bedroom, walking right up to her side of the bed and ignoring her husband, who was snoring loud enough to register on the Richter Scale. The figure pulled out a gun and aimed it at the General with one hand while clamping their hand over the General's mouth with the other.

"Don't say a word," the figure said. "Don't make a single movement. Nod slowly if you understand." Beckman did as she was told. "Graham ordered Bartowski's death. Don't even attempt to deny it. And I suggest you never make the same mistake, no matter what happens with him. If you do…"

The person made a big show of cocking the gun and aiming it at her husband. Beckman's eyes went wide in fear. The figure fired…and the gun clicked.

"…then next time, the gun will be loaded. And both of you will learn that the hard way."

The figure went for the window but turned back momentarily. "This conversation NEVER occurred," they said in a menacing voice before jumping out the window. Beckman bolted from the bed and tried to see who it was, but they were long gone into the night.

 _ **San Diego, CA  
April 14, 1998  
3:45 PM PDT**_

 _I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down  
I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down  
I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down  
I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down…_

Jenny Burton drove home from school, the Chumbawamba tune blasting out on the radio the lone highlight of the day. Life had been that way ever since she came to James Buchanan High School just before her junior year. Her father and she had barely escaped the law in Wisconsin, and she had to endure another name change. At this point, she didn't even remember what her original name was. And truthfully, she didn't care.

She tried to keep a low profile at Buchanan High, but there were always problems, especially with those stuck-up bitches on the cheerleading squad, who wore their uniforms daily like a badge of honor, even when the school's sports teams weren't playing. Sure enough, she went by her locker at the end of the day and found the head cheerleader…or head bitch, depending on how you looked at her…talking crap about almost every other student in the school. And Jenny was often in the crosshairs of Heather Chandler's disdain, to say nothing about feeling bad for Mark Ratner, who seemed to spend as much time inside his locker as he did in his classes, thanks to the large assortment of bullies the school had.

She turned the corner to her house and stopped far away from it. She saw a dozen San Diego P.D. cars and several unmarked vehicles. There were police officers everywhere and even a few people wearing ATF windbreakers.

 _They found him_ , she thought.

She knew one day the law would catch up to them, but she had hoped she had more time. She figured once she got away from her father, she could start a new life, maybe even save up enough money to attend college and get out of the various cons her father had her help him with over the years. But she only had one option now, and going with the police wasn't it.

She waited for the police to leave with him and ran for the woods, finding the tree with the broken branches. She got on her knees and dug into the ground. She uncovered the box the was located there. Taking out a knife, she cut the tape off of the box to discover thousands of dollars of cash inside. There was also a note.

 _In Case of Emergency. Love You, Daddy_.

She looked around. She had never been so scared in her life. She was on her own, and the only person she could rely on now was herself…

 _ **Staples Center – Los Angeles, CA  
January 10, 2016  
9:15 PM PST**_

"Oh, this is painful."

"Why did they do this to us? I don't even like basketball."

One would have thought that having courtside seats to a Lakers game, sitting mere feet away from Jack Nicholson, Dyan Cannon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Drew Barrymore, and a hundred other famous Hollywood stars would be the highlight of one's life. However, the Lakers were horrible this season, they were getting beaten by the Jazz, Kobe wasn't even playing, and few-to-none of those so-called Hollywood stars were still in the building. But the CIA needed to sell the Chuck-and-Sarah cover, so they sprung for the front-row seats to the game.

And having John Casey give them grief all night while he sat in one of the bars at the Staples Center didn't make things any better.

"The things I have to do for this job sometimes," Sarah spat as the Laker defense gave up another easy basket. She then gently grabbed Chuck's arm. "Not that being here with you isn't fun, but making these public appearances grates on me sometimes."

"I would have thought you'd be used to it by now," Chuck replied. "You're always great on the talk shows. Didn't you do that lip sync thing with Jimmy Fallon last year?"

Sarah shook her head in frustration. "Do not even get me started on that. I felt like such an idiot."

"Oh, come on. You were great. You nailed that Joan Jett song. The crowd was going crazy."

"And then Jimmy did that Elvis Presley tune and the crowd went nuts. I felt so worthless. It was bad enough he kept goading me about auditioning for that superhero movie coming out in a couple of years. Got the audience cheering for me and everything."

"Captain Marvel?" Chuck asked, to which Sarah nodded. "Well, now we have two reasons to get the Intersect out of my head. I think you'd make a great Captain Marvel. You can already do almost everything she can do anyway."

Sarah laughed. "Chuck, I'm pretty sure the CIA isn't going to let me leave the spy game just so I can play a superhero. God, I was so embarrassed that night. It was almost as bad as that _Ellen_ appearance…"

Chuck stared in confusion. "What _Ellen_ appearance?"

"Nothing, never mind," Sarah said quickly, having completely forgotten the reason why the _Ellen_ interview was so bad never made it to air.

They could hear the crowd start to cheer louder and louder, which made no sense because there was a timeout on the floor.

"Did we miss something?" Sarah asked.

Chuck looked around and then he looked up at the scoreboard above the court. They were on the "Kiss Cam" and the crowd wanted to see the famous couple lock lips.

"I thought the Lakers were supposed to be 'too cool' to do that," Chuck said with not a little annoyance. The camera wouldn't move off of them and the crowd got louder.

Sarah smiled. "Let's humor them."

She pulled Chuck's face to hers and gently placed her lips on his. It took almost no time for the kiss to be less and less gentle. Chuck ran his fingers through her hair as their kiss became extremely passionate. Both of them felt electricity run through them that could light up Los Angeles for a year.

"The camera's been off of you for a good two minutes, morons," Casey ground out over their earpieces.

Chuck and Sarah broke apart and looked in wide-eyed shock. Sure enough, the game had already resumed. They avoided eye contact with each other like two overly-shy teenagers who just had their first make-out session.

"Well, I…hope that keeps the tabloids happy for a while," Chuck said nervously.

"Me too," Sarah replied with equal anxiety.

~/^\~

Chuck and Sarah joined Casey at the bar in the upper levels of the arena. They had to paste smiles on their faces as several people came up to shake their hands. The smirk on Casey's face at their discomfiture refused to go away.

"Good thing they weren't playing the Sixers. You'd have to get horizontal for the crowd to be interested," Casey said with a significant amount of snark.

"Ease up," Sarah said. "This wasn't our idea. But the more we're seen in public, the more people watch the show. The more people watch the show, the more advertising dollars we raise, and the more we have to fund our missions."

"So now you've added TV executive to your list of skills? Surprised you don't claim you can run this country better than the President."

"Yeah, big talk coming from the guy who almost got the four of us killed because he did such a horrible job seducing that bodyguard in Morocco."

"Hey, is it my fault Larkin left and Slade is a moron when it comes to women? Miller would have had a better shot at seducing that guard, even if she doesn't swing that way."

Sarah rolled her eyes in annoyance and looked out over the crowd. "Possible bogey at 10 o'clock," she said, her mood turning serious.

Casey took a quick glance. "You sure?"

Sarah nodded. "I spotted her twice already tonight and she never approached like a fan would."

Casey surreptitiously pulled out his Glock and kept it under the table. "Get the asset out of here."

Sarah stood and took Chuck's hand, heading for the exit. The woman spotted Sarah and walked right up to her. Casey rose slowly and kept a sharp eye out on the three.

"I know you," the woman said.

Sarah chuckled. "A lot of people know me. That's what I get for being on a TV show."

"No, I mean I remember you. You're Jenny Burton!"

Chuck's eyes went wide. He didn't know what was going on.

"We used to go to high school together!" the woman exclaimed. "Heather Chandler! James Buchanan High class of '98? Go Cougars!"

Sarah put the pieces together. And the images of the stuck-up Heather in her cheerleader outfit filled her with considerable anger.

"So Sarah Walker? That's, like, your Hollywood name? That is so cool! You look so different. For the better, of course. And is this your boyfriend?"

Chuck shook off the shock and smiled broadly. "Yes, yes I am. Charles Carmichael. So glad to meet you," Chuck said, shaking Heather's hand. "So…Jenny Burton and Heather Chandler?"

"Heather Ratner, actually," she replied. "I married Mark Ratner." She turned to Sarah. "You remember him, right?"

Sarah could also remember Mark being shoved inside his locker. This didn't feel right. One of the sweetest students she remembered marrying the nastiest bitch in San Diego?

"Mark, come over here! It's Jenny Burton!"

Mark walked up to the three. "Jenny, it's good to see you again. You look…so great."

Sarah turned to Chuck, hoping he could help her get out of this but he was momentarily frozen. Sarah winced inside; Chuck must have flashed on Mark.

"So, are you going to the big reunion in San Diego next weekend? I imagine you don't get to see your dad much."

"We can't," Sarah said, not exactly liking Heather pouring salt into an old wound concerning her father. "I'm not really a reunion person…"

"…of course we'll be there!" Chuck interrupted with a big smile.

"Chuck, you don't want to do that. I think it would be boring for you to take a trip down memory lane with us," Sarah replied, trying to keep the acidity out of her voice even though she was ready to kill him.

"Good God, no! Not at all. I can't think of anything I'd rather do then spend an evening learning all about…my Jenny."

"Okay!" Heather said excitedly. "We will see you there!"

Chuck and Sarah watched Heather and Mark leave. Casey joined them.

"What the hell were you thinking, Chuck?" Sarah hissed at him.

"What was I supposed to do? I flashed on the guy. He's a design engineer for a major aeronautics contractor. I thought you'd appreciate me taking a little initiative. And by the way, what is going on with your name? Your character is named for the person you were in high school? I'm totally confused here."

Sarah grabbed his wrist out of sight and twisted it backwards. "That is from my past. A past you have NO business poking around in!" she growled at him.

"Easy Walker," Casey said, prompting Sarah to let go of Chuck's wrist. "Don't kill the messenger. Not Bartowski's fault you went to high school with a treasonous scumbag.

All three of their phones beeped a message. "This will have to go on the back burner for now," Casey said as he looked at the text. "Beckman wants us back at the hotel. Looks like Miller's and Slade's homework paid off about the Cipher."

The three quickly left the arena.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
January 10, 2016  
10:30 PM PST**_

"The good news is, Fulcrum doesn't have the Cipher anymore," Carina said to start the meeting. "The bad news is, Jimmy and I found out that it was stolen from one of their low-level idiots. They found his body in a hotel in Houston."

"The really bad news is, based on the evidence the NSA team found in the hotel, the Cipher is in the hands of Sasha Banacheck," Jimmy continued. "She's an ex-KGB operative who is looking to sell the item. Unfortunately, we don't know where or when. But based on some transfers between accounts Banacheck owns and banks that are fronts for the Iranian government, we think she's going to trade back the Cipher to Fulcrum for a significantly higher price."

"If she's got it, we just have to grab her and find out where she hid it," Casey said.

General Beckman's image came up on the screen. "That won't work. Sasha Banacheck was in a Bulgarian prison for seven years. They got nothing out of her. The good news is one agent was able to get close. That's why she stayed off the radar for so long. But her money must be running out for her to make a dangerous play like this. Fortunately, this agent knows more about her than anyone alive."

"Who?"

"That agent is Roan Montgomery."

Casey quietly growled at the name and Jimmy shook his head in frustration.

"The guy hates me," Casey muttered. "My supervisor in operative training. Flunked me twice. Made my life hell on the show, too."

Sarah looked in Casey's direction and smiled. Payback was indeed a bitch.

"He's off the grid now. Use the Intersect to find him," Beckman said before signing off.

"Seriously, is that all I'm good for around here?" Chuck asked in irritation. 'Use the Intersect. Flash, Chuck. Tell us where he is.' Does Beckman even know my name?"

"Knows it? Sure," Casey replied. "Gives a rat's ass? Not likely."

"Chuck, look at it this way," Sarah replied, taking an evil glance at Casey. "The sooner we find Roan, the faster we can get to the Cipher and the faster you can get back to the life you want."

Chuck sighed. Sarah had a point. "Is there a file on him?"

Carina handed Chuck a folder, which he opened. On the very first page was a picture of Roan Montgomery. He did flash, seeing pictures of Roan in many different outfits, including swimsuits even supermodels shouldn't wear. He also saw mansions, an address, and women. Lots and lots of beautiful, scantily-clad women.

"He's in Palm Springs," he finally said. "And he's got a lot of lady friends."

"OK," Sarah replied. "We'll get him tomorrow. Let's reconvene here at 0800 hours."

Casey, Carina, and Jimmy left the conference room and Sarah walked over to her room. Chuck followed Sarah and knocked on her door.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Well, I thought before I left, if you had a few minutes, we could cover a few stats for our undercover mission in San Diego next weekend."

"Chuck…"

He walked in her room and sat on her bed. "No big deal if you don't have a full dossier workup on your classmates. We just need to be on the same page with the briefest of facts."

He pulled out a pencil and a small notepad. "I'll go first. I'll be playing the role of Jenny's boyfriend, Chuck. Used to work at a Buy More before getting a job as a technical consultant on _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_. Sister is Ellie, doctor, engaged to a doctor. There, all up to speed on Jenny's boyfriend." He flipped the pad open. "Your turn."

Sarah glared at him. "I'm not doing this."

"OK, here's what we know thus far. Jenny Burton went to James Buchanan High School in San Diego, California. Class of 1998. Is Jenny a diminutive of 'Jennifer'? And why the name change? Was that your idea or a Hollywood producer's idea…"

"Back off, Chuck. You have as much information as you need."

Chuck paused. "So is that Jenny with a 'y' or an 'i'…"

Sarah grabbed the pencil. "All Jenny's boyfriend needs to know is that Jenny hates questions about her past."

She took the pencil and threw it at a picture of the two of them. The pencil cracked the glass, landing right between Chuck's eyes.

"You got that?" she hissed.

Chuck looked at the picture in complete mortification. "I'm good. Yeah, I'm good." He quickly went to the door and exited. He could hear Sarah angrily lock the door behind him.

"How did she do that?" he whispered to himself.

 _ **Palm Springs, CA  
January 11, 2016  
9:30 AM PST**_

The team drove up to a well-to-do house on Palm Canyon Drive and exited the SUV.

"So, what's the deal with this Roan guy?" Chuck asked. "He was a spy? He was on the show before all of you?"

"He's a legend in the department," Sarah replied. "An incredible spy. A real old-school James Bond type."

"Ahh, the memories," Carina reminisced. "I used to watch the show when I was a kid. In fact, he was the first guy I…"

"Overrated if you ask me," Casey ground out before Carina could gross him out.

"What was the class that you failed?" Sarah asked.

"Infiltration and Inducement of Enemy Personnel."

Sarah turned to Chuck. "Yeah, in the Academy, we called it Seduction School."

"Yeah, like I need a class," Casey huffed.

Chuck turned to Jimmy. "And he was supposed to train you but blew it off?"

"Yeah," Jimmy replied in a deep funk.

"I kept offering to go through the entire class with him," Carina said with a flirtatious lilt.

"They don't make condoms strong enough for you to do that," Casey quipped.

They got to the door, which was ajar. "Somebody's already been here," Casey said as he pulled out his gun. Jimmy pulled Chuck behind him as Casey kicked the door open. Sarah and Carina immediately entered, pointing their guns in opposite directions to cover the room.

"They ransacked the place," Sarah said as Carina and she moved carefully forward. Casey and Jimmy covered their backs and kept an eye on Chuck. They moved towards the bedroom, where a pair of legs stuck out from underneath the bed.

"Stay here, Chuck," Jimmy said as Sarah, Casey and Carina approached the bed. Casey waited until Sarah and Carina were ready and then lifted the corner of the mattress.

Roan was underneath the bed with a bottle of gin in his hand…snoring loudly. And looking significantly older than his picture.

Chuck entered and stared in shock at Roan passed out under his bed. "This is the guy who's supposed to help us? I'm going to be the Intersect forever!"

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
January 11, 2016  
11:00 AM PST**_

This had the makings of a bad day. Roan was passed out on Sarah's bed. Jimmy hauled him to the SUV while Sarah and Carina gathered a suitcase of clothes for Roan to wear. And General Beckman didn't look particularly happy.

"I don't understand," Beckman said. "Did you find Agent Montgomery?"

"We did," Sarah replied. "It's just he's having a bit of trouble remaining…upright."

"We tried everything," Casey continued. "Water, aspirin. The guy's out. Bottom line, if we want Sasha Banacheck, it's up to us. I suggest going old-school. Torture it out of her."

"Torture will never work."

Everybody turned to see Roan Montgomery enter the room dressed in a very sharp suit and looking at least fifteen years younger than he did when he was passed out under his bed. A goofy smile came to Sarah's face, and General Beckman fixed her hair upon seeing him on the monitor.

"Hello, Diane," Roan purred.

Jimmy leaned towards Carina. "Is Beckman actually blushing?" He then glanced at her. "Are YOU actually blushing?"

"Hello, Roan," Beckman replied, trying to keep her excitement out of seeing him…and failing.

Roan turned to the team. "The only way to get Sasha Banacheck is to seduce her."

Casey straightened up to his full height. "Well, duty calls."

"Not you, Agent Frankenstein," Roan quickly retorted.

"Especially not after Morocco," Sarah added.

"We need someone more innocuous," Roan continued. "Someone with whom she can let her guard down. Essentially the last person in the world she would ever suspect of being an agent."

Casey turned towards Chuck. "Uh, not that I'm not flattered to being considered innocuous, but the world thinks I'm dating Sarah," Chuck said. "How could I get away with seducing another woman?"

"Quite right, Agent Bartowski. Fortunately, we have one more candidate. And he is not attached to anybody."

Everybody in the room turned to look at Jimmy. He looked at them in momentary confusion before it kicked in.

"Aaah hell," he moaned, dropping into the chair behind him and burying his face in his hands.

"Agent Montgomery is right," Beckman said. "You're perfect for the job, Agent Slade. You're unattached, you're attractive, and the world knows you as an actor with a role in an action comedy. There's no way Banacheck would ever think you're a real spy. Let's get to work, people." The screen shut off.

"This is ridiculous," Jimmy said quietly without looking up. "I have never done anything like this before."

"Not to worry, Agent Slade," Roan said with considerable self-assuredness. "I'll teach you everything you need to know."

"Yeah, and where was that eight years ago when you were supposed to train me?"

"Eight years ago?" Roan thought for a moment before a smile came to his face. "Oh, right. Bermuda. That lovely brunette from the Australian SAS." Roan reminisced for a moment before returning to the present. "You've been with a few women here and there. I can up your game."

"Um, Roan?" Sarah quietly eked out.

Roan looked at the pained expression on Sarah's face. He then figured it out. "You've got to be kidding. Not even once?" Sarah shook her head sadly while Chuck, Casey and Carina tried not to grin. "Good Lord, this will be harder than I thought."

"That's it," Jimmy said angrily, pushing himself up and walking towards the door. "Call me when you need someone to retake a town controlled by ISIS or leap off the Sears Tower."

"Isn't it called the Willis Tower now?" Chuck asked.

"Shut up!" Jimmy threw open the door and stalked out.

Sarah was beyond pissed off now. This bad day got much worse for no good reason. She bolted out of the room and went over to the elevators where Jimmy was waiting to go downstairs.

"Hey! Get over here!"

She grabbed Jimmy by his ear and dragged him to her hotel room, pulling him towards the bed and slamming the door behind them.

"Enough of this!" Sarah yelled at him, her blood pressure ringing the bell. "I am sick and tired of you acting like you don't know how to be a spy! It's ridiculous! We need the Cipher back, and this is the only way to do it! There are a lot of things I never did before becoming a spy but I still did them because they were important! Do you want Chuck to have to keep the Intersect the rest of his life and go through what you went through just so you avoid having to do something you've never done before?"

Jimmy sunk back on the bed and his head dropped in complete shame. Sarah sat down next to him. "Look, this is what we do. We help each other. If one of us gets in trouble, the other three always have their back. We're the best team of spies the government has and you're a big reason why. Did you forget when you and Casey charged that al Qaeda compound by yourselves to rescue those civilians? Or when you got Carina away from that separatist group? And I can't even count the number of times you saved me, including that guest appearance on _Ellen_!"

A tiny smile came to Jimmy's face. "Yeah, freeing Carina and helping Casey were definitely easier than bailing you out on that show."

Sarah grinned and put an arm around him. "That's my point, Jimmy. Maybe you've never had a seduction mission before, but you have the looks, the personality, and the best teacher in the business to help you. You'll get what we need from Sasha Banacheck. You've helped us out more than we could ever know. This time, we're going to be there for you."

Jimmy turned towards Sarah and gave her an odd glance. "This is starting to sound like a really bad episode of _Friends_."

Sarah laughed heartily. "How you doin'?" she said in a horribly-botched imitation of Joey Tribbiani, which still made Jimmy laugh.

"Come on," she said as she gave him a little kiss and got up from the bed. "We have work to do."

"OK, boss," Jimmy replied as the two returned to the conference room. Casey and Carina were gone.

"Casey and Carina went to track down where we can find Sasha Banacheck," Chuck said.

"Are we ready to go?" Roan asked. Both Sarah and Jimmy nodded. "Make sure he's going with plenty of protection."

"Is it REALLY going to go that far?" Jimmy asked in irritation.

"That won't be a problem," Sarah sharply replied. "Jimmy might be inexperienced in romance but he's one of the best when it comes to combat."

"Good," Roan replied. "Do you know why she's called the Black Widow?"

"Because…she's African-American and her husband died?" Chuck asked hopefully.

"She kills all of her mates."

"Terrific," Jimmy lamented. "I'm going to be eaten alive by the Black Widow…and not in the good way."

"Not to worry, Agent Slade," Roan replied. "You just need to get invited up to her room. Let's start with Lesson #1: the proper way to drink a martini."

He grabbed the martini he had prepared and handed a second one to Jimmy. "Hold by the stem. Nod to mark." Roan held his martini by the stem and nodded towards Sarah. Jimmy followed suit. "Then, slowly tilt back."

Roan drained his martini while Jimmy sipped at his. "A moment to learn…a lifetime to perfect," Roan said.

Chuck shook his head. "His liver must look like camouflage!" he whispered to Sarah.

"Come on," Sarah said, ignoring Chuck's quip. "Let's keep going."

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
January 12, 2016  
7:30 PM PST**_

The team got lucky: Sasha Banacheck was in town and staying at a downtown hotel. They weren't sure if she had already unloaded the Cipher, but tonight was the night to find out. Casey readied the weapons and went down to the very large surveillance van they would need for the evening, as the entire team would monitor Jimmy from there. Carina managed to procure a Lamborghini for Jimmy's use by charming the right Beverly Hills car salesman. Chuck and Sarah went over some last-minute details with Roan.

"If he pulls this off, it'll be a miracle," Roan said quietly as he looked towards the bathroom where Jimmy was getting dressed.

"Why must you constantly question him?" Sarah asked, beginning to tire of Roan's commentary.

"It's difficult to be optimistic about someone who has less sexual experience than a high schooler the week before their prom."

"He'll be fine. Improvisation is one of his best traits."

"Really? Has he even kissed a woman?"

"Of course he has!"

"Not counting you and Agent Miller for the show?"

"Oh," Sarah said, looking at the ground. "But both of us agree he's a great kisser."

"I read the file on Agent Miller. That woman would mount a meat grinder if she could find the zipper."

"Enough already," Sarah hissed. "I'm going to check on Jimmy."

Sarah started to go to the bathroom door but Chuck stopped her.

"Are you OK?" he said softly so Roan wouldn't hear.

Sarah exhaled in frustration. "We're on a potentially dangerous mission, and I have Roan questioning a member of my team. It's bad enough Jimmy's already questioning himself. And insulting Carina like that for no reason?"

"It'll be fine. Like you told him, all of us will be there. He can take care of himself. Plus, you've got the master of seduction with you. And Roan's coming with us as well."

Sarah laughed and put an arm around Chuck. "Oh, you're the master of seduction?"

"You haven't seen me put the moves on you." Chuck pretended to fire guns at Sarah and gave her an eyebrow dance. She couldn't stop laughing.

"OK, frustration cured," she said with a smile, giving Chuck a quick kiss. She continued to the bathroom as Chuck returned to Roan.

"I get the feeling there's more to the two of you than an asset and his protector," Roan said.

"What?" Chuck cleared his throat a couple of times and nervously shifted back and forth. "No, it's nothing. We're…just friendly towards each other."

"Not to worry, Charles. After we finish with this assignment, we'll get Agent Walker out of her shell."

"Jimmy, are you ready?" Sarah called to him from the bathroom door.

Jimmy walked out in an Armani midnight blue suit wearing a white Oxford shirt and a striped tie. His hair looked like it was styled by the best hairdressers in Hollywood. And unlike his normal shy stance, he walked confidently with his eyes up and looking forward. Chuck stared in complete surprise and Sarah had the same look on her face a proud parent would at seeing their child graduate college. Even Roan looked impressed.

"There's hope for him yet," he said quietly to himself.

Jimmy took a few steps into the bedroom area and then suddenly looked back and forth.

"What's up?" Chuck asked

Jimmy was confused. "I swear I felt a fan blowing on me just now. That was weird."

 _ **Omni Hotel at California Plaza – Los Angeles, CA  
January 12, 2016  
8:45 PM PST**_

Jimmy pulled up to the hotel and a valet opened the door to the Lamborghini. Jimmy handed him a hundred-dollar bill.

"Keep it safe," he told the valet as he walked into the hotel. He tried to hide his nervousness at seeing every pair of eyes on him. It wouldn't have been the first time that had happened to him, but typically either Sarah or Carina was with him and the focus was always on them instead of him.

Casey parked the van in the underground basement across the street. Chuck, Sarah, Carina, and Roan sat in the back of the van as Chuck and Casey activated the surveillance equipment.

"Microphone check, Jimmy?" Carina asked.

"Copy," he said nervously.

"You'll do fine," Sarah reassured him. "Just be yourself."

"I thought we had already established that would be a stupid thing to do."

"You play a spy on TV, Agent Slade," Roan chimed in. "Use that persona. Be Lance McCall."

"You mean do death-defying stunts and crack one-liners?"

"Enough, Jimmy," Sarah snarled.

Jimmy exhaled in frustration. "Let me get to the bar and we'll play it out."

"Relax," Roan said. "I'll take you through the world-famous, four-pronged Montgomery attack. First, work the room."

Jimmy entered the bar, keeping his eyes looking forward, and surveyed the room. A couple of twentysomething women came up to him screaming and waving autograph pads at him. He quickly signed them to send them on their way.

"Hey, not a bad idea to send those girls my way," Jimmy said. "That should raise an eyebrow with Banacheck."

"Uh, that wasn't part of the plan," Carina said.

"Oops."

"No problem. Just keep moving, Slade," Roan said over his microphone. "Remember, when you enter a bar, every eye should be on you. You could leave the bar with any woman you desire, but you have chosen her."

Jimmy made his way over to the couch where Sasha Banacheck was seated.

"Next, she'll need to be well-lubricated," Roan told him. "Ice-cold dirty martini…three olives."

"Is this seat taken?" Jimmy asked her but got silence in response. "I'll take that as a no." He sat down on the couch opposite from her. "Care for a drink?"

A server came up to him. "Two dirty martinis, please. Three olives in each," Jimmy told him. "Jimmy Slade, very nice to meet you. And you are?"

"Bored," Sasha replied tiredly. "Thank you for the martini, but I no longer drink." She got up and walked to the bar.

Everyone in the van looked at each other in surprise. "Doesn't drink?" Roan asked incredulously. How is Slade supposed to seduce her without alcohol?"

"He"ll be OK, Roan," Sarah replied angrily.

"Slade doesn't even think he can seduce someone!"

"Could we get out of my ear, please?" Jimmy said quietly, turning his head away from the bar.

"Enough, you two," Casey ground out. "We still need to get Slade upstairs to her room."

Roan exhaled. "OK. Slade, approach her at the bar. Third prong, the woman is an absolute Francophile. Just the mention of St. Tropez makes her woozy."

Jimmy nodded and walked to the bar, standing next to Sasha. "I hate to keep bothering you but I keep thinking I saw you last spring. St. Tropez, perhaps? Leonardo DiCaprio was having a little fashion show for charity down there? I modeled a couple of suits. Nice guy, Leo. I think the Oscar is finally his."

Sasha glanced to her right and waved off the two bodyguards who looked ready to pounce on Jimmy.

"At the Intercontinental," Roan added.

"I was staying at the Intercontinental while I was there," Jimmy told Sasha, who suddenly was interested.

"Antoine, the piano player, is the best in Europe, don't you agree?"

Jimmy nodded. "Completely. Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, the man can play anything."

"Antoine has been dead for six years."

Jimmy's eyes widened. "Goddammit," his whispered harshly behind his drink.

"Oh, poor Antoine," Roan said sadly as Sarah typed feverishly into the computer to do a search. "That's tragic."

"Oh, I had not heard that," Jimmy said. "I figured I just missed him there last time. No one ever told me."

Sarah quickly got on the microphone. "But you prefer the new piano player, Marcel."

"Antoine was great, but I think I prefer Marcel," Jimmy said. "I mean, the man could take a Justin Bieber song and make it sound like Rachmaninoff."

Sasha regarded him for a minute. "I have to agree." She raised her class. "To Antoine."

"May he rest in peace," Jimmy replied, clinking glasses with Sasha.

Sasha downed her drink. "Have a lovely evening, Mr. Slade," she said as she got up and walked away.

Jimmy turned to the bar and exhaled in frustration. "Yeah, that worked really well."

"Nice work, Casanova," Casey said and then turned to Chuck. "Hope you enjoy having the Intersect in your head for the rest of your life."

Jimmy slammed his fist on the bar. "Roan, what's the fourth prong of attack?"

"Forget it, Slade," Roan replied. "The mission's over. This is getting too dangerous."

"No!" Jimmy was livid. "I spent the last two days getting yelled at about doing this mission and taking every last dig at my lack of experience. And now you want to pull the plug? Bullshit! I'm finishing this! Now what's the last goddamn prong?"

"Be a bastard," Roan replied.

Jimmy huffed in exacerbation. "How about that for an irony."

He stalked out of the bar and headed towards the elevators. "Hey, lady!"

"Yes, Mr. Slade?" she replied dismissively without stopping.

"You're a fool, do you know that?"

"Excuse me?"

"No, I don't think I will!" Sasha continued to walk, and Jimmy matched her stride for stride. "Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I'm one of the most famous actors in this country with a role on one of the most popular TV shows in the world! I could have had any woman that I wanted in there tonight, and any one of them would have done things to me that would make a hooker blush! And yet I went up to you. And you know what? Here's the worst part for you. You'll go upstairs to your room and go to sleep and one little thought will creep into your mind just before you drift off. That you missed the opportunity to have an incredible night with the greatest lover you'll ever know!"

"And who might that be?" Sasha replied in full skepticism.

"You're looking at him, sister," Jimmy replied, his eyes steeled on hers. "A man who has been all over the world and pleasured women of every race, creed, and culture. A man who would give you dreams that would last the rest of your life and would take you on his private jet to enjoy the sunny warmth of Fiji at the drop of a hat. So I'll give you one final chance before I board my private jet with half of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad. Can I buy you a club soda?"

Sasha looked at him for a moment. "No, thank you." Jimmy was ready to turn away when Sasha stepped closer to him. "But you can take me upstairs to my room and make mad, passionate sex to me."

Jimmy gave a slight smile and got on the elevator with Sasha.

In the van, Roan leaned back and drained his fifth martini of the night. "I still got it."

~/^\~

Jimmy and Sasha exited the elevator in a full-on lip lock. They made their way to Sasha's room. They broke the kiss as she opened the door.

"Make yourself a drink, Mr. Slade," Sasha purred. "I'm going to slip into something…a little more comfortable."

"Be my guest," Jimmy replied with a small amount of the attitude that got him into the room in the first place. He watched her retreat into the bedroom.

"Chuck, have you flashed on anything?" Jimmy whispered.

"Keep walking around the room," Chuck replied. Jimmy turned so the camera hidden in his breast pocket saw every inch of Sasha's room, opening cabinets and drawers in the process. "Nothing, sorry."

"OK, file download."

Jimmy quickly went over to Sasha's laptop and inserted a USB drive to copy all of her files and transmit them to the van. Chuck and Carina looked over all of the information. The USB drive then quietly beeped, indicating the downloading program was done. Jimmy removed the drive and went to the door. Unfortunately, Sasha's bodyguards were right outside.

"Uh, gentlemen. Good work," Jimmy said. "Keep the area secure. Ms. Banacheck and I are going to be busy for a while. If we need you…then I'm doing something very wrong."

Jimmy closed the door and returned to the couch, trying to look relaxed. Sasha returned wearing a leopard-print teddy.

"There you are," she said. Jimmy slowly stood. Sasha wrapped her arms around him and began to kiss him. Jimmy began to reciprocate. Sasha reached down to undo Jimmy's belt and began to kiss along his neck.

"Think I don't know your four-pronged approach…Roan?" she whispered in Jimmy's ear.

Everybody's eyes widened, including Jimmy's. He pulled back to see a large knife in Sasha's hand. She lunged at him but he grabbed her wrist and twisted hard, knocking her back with a kick to the mid-section in the process. She dropped the knife and fell to the ground.

" _Idi Syuda_ (Get in here)!" she shouted.

"Slade, go to the balcony!" Casey yelled as Sasha's bodyguards broke through the door. "Jump!"

Jimmy threw the doors open and leaped off of the balcony as Sasha's bodyguards opened fire. He fell fourteen stories into the outdoor pool. He surfaced and breathed a sigh of relief. Sarah immediately went to the driver's seat of the van to bring the van around to that side of the hotel.

"Nice work, Case," Carina said. "Good thing you knew about the pool."

Casey looked back and forth. "I didn't know there was a pool down there."

The van pulled up and Chuck opened the side door. Jimmy looked ready to kill every single person in the van.

"Nobody…say…a goddamn…word," he growled through clenched teeth only an orthodontist could separate.

He collapsed onto the floor of the van. Everybody looked at him.

"Bravo, Agent Slade," Roan said. "Your mission was a success."

Jimmy slowly turned his head to Roan and gestured at his waterlogged clothes. "You think THIS was a success!?"

"You're alive and got the intel, didn't you?"

Sarah reached down and gently massaged Jimmy's shoulders. "You did great."

"Even better, look at what we found," Carina said and Chuck and she looked at Sasha's files. "There's a document here with a set of numbers on it. These ones here look like map coordinates."

She then pointed to a second number: 1453009500, "I don't know what that is."

Chuck looked at the number. "I know what it is. If the first set of numbers are map coordinates, this number could be the date and time. Computers assign a number to every second of the day dating back to 1970."

He did some quick calculations. "If this is GMT, it would be Sunday at 5:45 AM."

"Which would be 9:45 PM on Saturday night in L.A.," Sarah replied.

"So we now know when. And the map coordinates…" Carina began as she entered them into the computer. She then tried to suppress a smile when the location came up on the computer. "Uh, Sarah? You're not going to like this."

"What?" Sarah asked in curiosity as she looked at the monitor. She then exhaled a long and very angry sigh. "To quote Jimmy, aaah hell."

Chuck grinned. "Looks like we're going to your reunion after all."


	15. Go Cougars!

_Hello again. I can't believe it's been six months to the day that I started this story. This was just a crazy idea I had once that I thought I would try while recovering from my hospital stays. Now it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Once again, I really want to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this. Your kind words (and those viewing statistics) have definitely been the ray of sunlight during a very rough patch in my life, and I wanted everyone to know how much I appreciate it._

 _I struggled with how I wanted to cover Carina's past, which we will delve into in this chapter. It's a touchy subject, no question about it. Please feel free to say if I did it right or not. I tried to write is as best as I could, but I had to concede having zero experience with the situation._

 _Carina will have a big presence in this chapter and will have a larger presence later in the story. In fact, the first part of this chapter I switched around so it was about Carina and Sarah. I wanted to minimize Jimmy in this chapter since he was front-and-center in the last one, but he does have one big scene, which I hope plays for laughs (and meta-references). And I did manage to preserve a few items from Chuck vs the Seduction in this one and even took the suggestion of Marc Vun Kannon to include a"Grosse Pointe Blank" reference. So, thanks Marc!_

 _As always, the parts that are canon are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. Also, I should warn you that it might take some time to get out the next chapter. This is a big section coming up and it involves Jill, Chuck's ex. Please feel free to give me any suggestions you may have regarding that plotline. I have a few ideas, but I can always use more._

 _Enjoy this chapter and please leave reviews. Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
January 13, 2016  
10:30 AM PST**_

"It's over, Dominic."

Jill Garrett stood as Dominic O'Brien kept his gun pointed at Jen Burton, who was on the ground and dazed. A million thoughts raced through Jill's mind as she stared down her former partner and ex-lover, who faked his death to join a rogue group of spies. The team located their hideout, but Dominic managed to get away with Jen in tow.

"I wanted you to come with me," Dominic said. "I really did. But I knew you didn't have the stomach to do what we do. You see things in black and white."

Jill shook her head. "Not black and white. I see things as right and wrong. Maybe I'm not the smartest spy in the world, and maybe I'm not the bravest. But I'm still willing to do what needs to be done. I wish I knew why you lost that."

Dominic cocked the gun. "Because it was time I started to look out for me. After all I did for this country, I deserved a big reward!"

"And your big reward was killing civilians and threatening my friend as you are right now?" Jill looked at him with complete scorn. "I know the score, too. But at least I wouldn't hurt innocent people just because I'm mad at the world."

"Nobody's innocent," Dominic seethed.

"Don't do this," Jill almost pleaded. "Don't make me hate you forever."

Dominic hesitated for a moment, slowly pointing the gun in the air and away from Jen. He then turned the gun back to Jen and tried to pull the trigger. Jill quick-drew her gun and shot him in the shoulder. Dominic dropped the gun and fell to the ground clutching his arm.

Jill stood above him, her gun still aimed at him. "Please don't…"

Dominic looked up at Jill and gave a malevolent smile. He reached for the gun. Jill fired twice at Dominic. He fell back and stopped moving.

Jill looked away and shut her eyes as she tried to rein in the conflict within her and suppress the emotions she was feeling. She put her gun away and held out her hand. Jen took it and stood up.

"Are you OK, Jen?" Jill quietly asked.

Jen nodded and squeezed her hand. "I'm fine, Jill. I'm more worried about you. For you to have to do that…"

Jill shook her head. "That wasn't the Dominic I remembered. I wish I knew why he turned."

"It wasn't because of you. That much I do know. Anybody would be lucky to be with you. I know I'm lucky to have you as a partner and a friend."

"Duke isn't," Jill replied.

"Bad example. I mean, Duke thinks Dirty Harry is a wuss," Jen replied with a smile.

"Good point."

The two walked away from the lifeless body of Dominic.

"And CUT!" Director Allan Kroeker shouted. "Great work, everyone!"

Sarah and Carina went back and helped Dwayne Walker, the actor who played Dominic, to his feet. "Nicely done," Carina said

"Thanks," he replied with a smile. "I finished my work on the _Suicide Squad_ set last week. What you guys do here is impressive. And everybody is really nice."

"Well, we try our best."

Dwayne turned to Sarah. "This is the most fun I've had in a role. And you guys are so talented. If I didn't know any better, I would think you're real spies."

Sarah smiled. "Oh, we get that all the time. It's so embarrassing. We're just regular overworked, underpaid actors. Or is it underworked, overpaid actors?"

Dwayne laughed at that one. "Take care. It was great to work with all of you."

Sarah and Carina watched Dwayne walk away as Jimmy joined them. "Not again," Carina said, exhaling in frustration.

Jimmy nodded in sympathy. "One of these days, someone's going to be determined to figure this out. And they'll do the full Lois Lane to catch us."

"Lois Lane?" Sarah gave him a weird look. "I can't tell if you've been a bad influence on Chuck or Chuck's been a bad influence on you."

" _Superman II_." Jimmy replied with not a little irritation. "You two were just born when that came out. Lois jumps over Niagara Falls to try and prove Clark Kent was really Superman. And eventually she found out he was when he put his hand into a fireplace and didn't get hurt. But Superman erased her memory at the end. Which, ironically, I wish he had done to me after I saw _Superman IV: The Quest for Peace_."

"What is someone going to do to prove you're a spy, Jimmy?" Carina asked in disbelief. "Shoot you dead?"

"I'd be OK with that." Sarah gave him a smack upside the head. "Hey, have you seen my IMDb page? I swear, there aren't enough bridges in the world for all the trolls on it."

Their phones beeped. Each of them saw the text message from Casey telling them to return to the hotel to conference with General Beckman. They left the studio and headed for Jimmy's car, who drove an SUV as opposed to the Porsche and Ferrari that Sarah and Carina drove.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
January 13, 2016  
12:00 PM PST**_

Chuck and Casey watched Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy enter the conference room.

"That took you long enough," Casey nagged as he checked his watch.

Carina pointed to Jimmy. "It's not our fault he drives slower than my grandmother."

"We had an early shoot today and I didn't have my daily dose of caffeine," Jimmy growled, downing half of the extra-large coffee he bought on the way. "Christ, I dive fourteen floors into a pool just to get some goddamn intel, and I still take crap for it the next morning. I'll just bet Beckman takes the cost of that Armani suit out of my pay."

"I'm not going to do that to you, Agent Slade." Beckman's image came up on the monitor.

Jimmy stared at her in surprise. "And I thought beating the Russians in Lake Placid was a miracle," he said quietly.

Beckman ignored his gibe. "We've confirmed the information from Chuck's flash and corroborated it with the intel Agent Slade managed to obtain last night. Chuck's instincts were correct."

The monitor switched to a top-secret schematic. "Mark Ratner is an engineer at Winthrop-Keller Aeronautics and has clearance to extremely sensitive plans for future weapons technology. Picture the next generation of F-22 Raptors. Essentially a superbomber."

Everyone turned when Casey gave a grunt of excitement…and everyone winced.

"We suspect Ratner will trade the technology to Banacheck in exchange for the Cipher. But at this point we do not know if Ratner is part of Fulcrum or wants to sell back the Cipher for a higher price. Your mission, Agent Walker, is to go to the reunion with Chuck and hide in plain sight. Find the Ratners and try to obtain any additional information you can. Once Chuck has ascertained how the transaction will take place, the rest of your team will move in and stop the deal."

"Respectfully, General, I wish to recuse myself from this mission," Sarah replied. "My cover has been compromised."

"Agent Walker, you have preexisting social history with the target. It seems to me like you have the perfect cover."

"But it's not a cover, General. It's…me."

"Then I hope _you_ will enjoy yourself in San Diego."

The screen went blank. Sarah stood and turned on her heel, heading towards the door.

"I cannot believe this," she said to herself, although everybody heard it.

She threw the door open hard and stalked across to her own room. Chuck, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy looked at each other.

"Someone really needs to talk to her," Carina said quietly.

"I've got this one," Casey said, straightening his shirt and walking towards the door.

"Yeah, that's what you said about Morocco," Jimmy quipped.

Casey knocked on the door to Sarah's room. "What do you want?" she asked in irritation as she opened the door.

"Be glad I'm the one who came over," Casey said without an ounce of sympathy. "Chuck's been badgering you about your past all week, and Slade would have ripped you a new one for doing exactly what you yelled at him for doing the other day."

Sarah huffed in frustration and went to sit on the bed. "And what tact are you going to take?" she asked disdainfully.

"Professional," Casey ground out. "Beckman's right. You have a better cover than the rest of us. If Banacheck sees Slade, we're dead. And she'll be suspicious if she sees Carina or me because we would have no business being at that reunion. But you went to that school. She won't put two and two together and think you're a spy."

Sarah looked at the ground and nodded. "You're right. I have to do this. It's just…"

"Look at it this way, Sarah. It doesn't matter what you were then," Casey said, his voice much softer than it was a moment ago. "You're going back as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. I don't care how bad high school was for you; this is the ultimate payback."

She looked up at him. She knew he had switched out of his agent persona when he started using her first name. She remembered him doing that quite often after Bryce left. Casey would never admit it, but he was just as loyal to her as a friend as he was as an agent, and he was the most loyal agent she had ever encountered. Even if he didn't always show it.

She stood and gave him a little smile. "Thanks," she said, giving his cheek a gentle caress, which earned her a quiet growl from him. Clearly, he switched back to being an agent rather quickly.

~/^\~

"It was probably a good thing Casey went. I don't think she'd be happy seeing either of us right now."

Chuck and Jimmy remained in the conference room going over the schematics of James Buchanan High School, trying to figure out the best way to surveil the place. Carina had left to go to the NSA office to work out some of the transportation logistics and to acquire a car for Chuck and Sarah to use to drive to San Diego.

"Well, I know why she wouldn't want to talk to me right now," Jimmy said. "She wants off of a mission after yelling at me the other day about it? But what did you do to earn a spot in her doghouse?"

Chuck exhaled and went over to the couch in the suite. "I was pestering her about her past and she got all bent out of shape over it. She even threw a pencil at a picture of me. And made it stick. I have to admit: I peed a little on that one."

"Dude…" Jimmy shook his head in disbelief. "How many times must you do that? I told you agents never like to talk about what happened before they became agents. Most of us are good at our jobs because we walk into this with a serious chip on our shoulder. Me? Hell, I walked in with an entire Pringle's factory on mine."

"I just…I just want to understand where all of you are coming from."

"You're better off not knowing. You already opened that can of worms once with Casey and Ilsa. Luckily that turned out the way it did."

"Other than Casey and me falling sixteen floors into a pool and you tearing half of your groin?"

Jimmy shrugged. "True. But now you're trying to find out about Sarah's past and she does not want to talk about it. Plain and simple. I get where she's coming from on that. All of us have these horrible stories from our childhood."

"Even Carina?"

Jimmy stiffened in his chair and then nodded. "Her, too. Never ask her about East Grande, Texas. Under any circumstances."

Chuck shuddered as well, his mind replete with horrible scenarios that Carina may have gone through in her youth. "What about you?"

Jimmy stared out into space. "Pretty much everything until eight years ago is out of bounds. All the way back to my birth."

"Well, you said you had the Intersect in you for twenty years, so that's pretty bad right there."

Jimmy shook his head. "My problems began way before then."

Chuck stared at him. It was obvious Jimmy's past was something that caused him great pain. He didn't want to press him about it, but he had to ask Sarah if she knew anything about Jimmy before he joined her team. His own childhood was not easy, but he had Ellie, he had Morgan, and he had people who liked him. Perhaps Jimmy didn't have any of that.

"Can I ask one question?" Chuck inquired, to which Jimmy nodded. "What is this whole thing about Sarah being on _Ellen_?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Can't tell you, sorry."

Chuck watched a little smile grow on Jimmy's face. "Oh, come on. Clearly it was something embarrassing and not painful or you wouldn't be smiling right now."

"I ain't telling you. I'll end up with a pencil through my ACTUAL head instead of just a picture."

Chuck's smile became wider and grew quite devious. "You know I can figure this one out, Jimmy." Chuck paused for a moment. "Hold on. Both of you were on _Ellen_ last May. That has to be it!"

"Will you stop already?"

"Please, give me one good story. It was only seven months ago. How bad could it be?"

Jimmy shook his head and quietly rumbled. He knew Chuck wasn't going to let this go.

"If Sarah finds out I told you this, I will end you," Jimmy said, pointing a wary finger at Chuck.

"I promise. Now what happened?"

Jimmy exhaled. "Sarah's been on _Ellen_ a few times. I think Ellen has a mini-crush on her. Maybe it's because Sarah looks a bit like Ellen's partner, Portia deRossi. I don't know. Anyway, she does the show in May and she's the first guest. Now up until that point, everything was fine. The audience had fun, Sarah and Ellen had great banter, it was all good."

"I remember now. Then they had on those Australian girls who do those YouTube videos where they lip-sync in their car."

Jimmy nodded. "SketchShe, yes. Anyway, the girls are getting ready to do their routine in a car they built on the set for them. Ellen drags Sarah back out there to join them in the car and do a song. And Sarah's scared to death. She thinks she tanked that Jimmy Fallon thing last year, and she starts talking to the SketchShe girls. Except for some reason, she's so nervous, she doesn't talk in her own voice."

Chuck stared in confusion before figuring it out. A huge grin came to him. "You mean…"

"WORST Aussie accent you have EVER heard in your life!" Chuck started laughing hysterically, and even Jimmy couldn't hold it in. "She made the Outback Steakhouse voiceover sound authentic. Nails on a chalkboard are a more pleasant sound. If we ever have a mission in Melbourne, we're leaving her home!"

"Oh, man! I would have paid anything to have seen that!" Chuck exclaimed.

"They stopped taping. Sarah's mortified, the SketchShe girls are embarrassed, and Ellen is pissed off because she hates to re-tape anything, but they didn't have a choice. They had to find a way to salvage this."

"And that's where you came in?"

Jimmy nodded. "I was two studios over being interviewed on _The Talk_. I finished over there and one of Ellen's producers flies over on this tricked-out golf cart and tells me to get the hell in. Then he tells me they need my help with fixing Sarah's appearance on their show. They rush me into makeup, put a boatload of gel in my hair and style it, then they put a big cheesy mustache on me and have me wear a tight t-shirt. They stick me backstage and set the scene up again. Ellen's in the front of this prop car with the brunette SketchShe girl, Shae-Lee, and Sarah's in the back with the two blonde ones, Madison and Lana. But nobody's in the driver's seat of the car. Ellen's DJ starts the music, and I walk out there."

Chuck nodded and grinned. "They dressed you up as Freddie Mercury."

"And never told Sarah or the audience, so when I came out, everybody started screaming. I walked slowly to the car, pumping the crowd up, who was clapping along to _We Will Rock You_. I got in the driver's seat and started lip-syncing the song. Sarah, Ellen, and the SketchShe girls did their moves, lip-synced the choruses, and the crowd went crazy."

"Morgan said that was one of the coolest thing he had ever seen on a talk show. How did Sarah react after it was all done?"

Jimmy smiled. "I believe her exact words were, "You tell anybody about this and I'll cut off your balls". And then she gave me a hug and said thank you."

They both turned when they heard the door open. Sarah and Casey entered.

"Chuck, can I talk to you for a minute?" Sarah asked him.

"Sure, no problem," Chuck replied and headed for the door.

"And Jimmy, get the surveillance van ready with whatever you need. You have to stay in that thing the whole night. No matter what."

Jimmy nodded. "Or you'll be kicking my can all over the place."

Chuck snickered at that, and Sarah stared in anger. She grabbed Chuck's hand and pulled him to her room.

"Jimmy told you about _Ellen_?" she snarled. Chuck shied into a corner. Sarah went to her dresser and pulled a knife out of the top drawer.

"Whoah, whoah, wait!" Chuck couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Don't go hurting Jimmy. It's not his fault. I kept badgering and badgering him to hear that story."

Sarah flung the knife towards the opposite wall without even looking. It destroyed a picture of the two of them at Comic Con dressed as Princess Leia and Han Solo.

"OK, and please don't kill the Intersect, either," he squeaked.

Sarah slammed the drawer shut and sat on her bed. Chuck shook his head in frustration.

"I don't get it," Chuck said. "You want to inflict damage on Jimmy because ONE TIME you were nervous on a talk show and he had to help you out? So you were nervous. Big deal! If anybody really cared, don't you think everybody would have heard about this by now? Ellen didn't say anything, her crew didn't, the SketchShe girls didn't, and not a single audience member said a thing! And I'll bet I know why, too! Because they love Sarah Walker! You're one of the biggest stars in Hollywood but you're also one of the nicest! I mean…that is unless you're dealing with a terrorist or someone trying to kill innocent people, then you're not-so-nice. Which is a good thing too, actually."

Chuck sat down next to her. "You told me on the beach you trust your team and they trust you. You said I could trust them, too. And you were right. All of you have kept me safe the last four months. And you go out of your way to help them. You even helped me with my sister's engagement. You didn't hesitate for one second, and there's no way that was part of the deal when you were assigned to me. You did that because you wanted to do it. You wanted to help me."

Chuck could see her anger dissipate. "I'm really sorry I insisted on prying the other day," he continued. "But I just wanted to know something…anything…about you. The Sarah Walker the world knows is a great person. And the one I've learned about is even better. I just…I just wish I knew why it's so hard for you to see that."

Sarah exhaled slowly. "It's…complicated, Chuck."

Chuck shook his head vigorously. "Nuh-uh. You're not getting away with that. If I have to, I will hound you the rest of my life until I can convince you whatever you hated about your past is gone and this smart, amazing, beautiful person is in its place."

Sarah looked at him. Eventually she smiled and even gave a little laugh. "Hard to believe you and Case are on the same page about this."

"He said the same thing?"

"Essentially. He said going to the reunion will be the ultimate payback for me."

"That is a very Casey way to put it," Chuck replied with a grin, which made Sarah laugh even more. "Just trust them, Sarah. Casey, Jimmy, and Carina have your back. And I have it, too. I'm not going to let you down."

Sarah turned to Chuck and stared at him for a moment. "I think you just gave me an idea. Sasha Banacheck can't see Jimmy at the reunion, and Casey is twenty years older than us, so why would he go to a reunion, even if it is for one of his co-stars? But Carina…"

Chuck snapped his fingers in triumph. "We sell to the press that Carina didn't go to her high school reunion and we dragged her to yours to have some fun. Brilliant!"

"And now we'll have three sets of eyes on the inside with no one being the wiser."

"That will draw the crowd even more to us, and Casey and Jimmy can have more free reign over the rest of the school."

"Let's tell everybody."

Chuck and Sarah returned to the conference room to explain their plans to Casey and Jimmy.

 _ **James Buchanan High School – San Diego, CA  
January 16, 2016  
8:30 PM PST**_

The limousine drove Chuck, Sarah, and Carina to the main door to the gymnasium. Sure enough, the press release they issued regarding Sarah attending her reunion worked like a charm.

Perhaps too well, given the three were mobbed before they could even get to the door.

Shouts of "Jenny!" and "Sarah!" filled the air. Even Chuck and Carina had people shouting at them. Sarah was feeling quite uncomfortable being in the spotlight, as the attention she was getting was just as much about who she was when she attended school as who she was now. But she knew she had to sell it to give Casey and Jimmy some breathing room to set up surveillance throughout the school.

They entered the gym and split apart. Carina went towards the DJ where people were dancing while Chuck and Sarah walked hand-in-hand around the gym keeping an eye on things.

Chuck noticed Sarah's discontentment. "Hey, I said not to worry. No one's gonna mess with you. We all have your back."

Sarah nodded. "I know. This just doesn't make sense. Mark was one of the nicest kids in school. I think he even had a crush on me. Why would he commit treason?"

Chuck shrugged. "I wish I knew. People change, though. Sometimes for the worse." He gently squeezed Sarah's hand. "Sometimes for the better."

He then looked to his right. "No. Way."

Sarah turned to see a large blow-up of her high school picture.

"Wow." Sarah gave Chuck an evil look. "It's not that bad. Actually, you're very cute."

"Mm-hmm," she replied, not believing him for one second.

They continued to walk around the gathering. They spotted Heather Chandler, still walking around with her cheerleader teammates and giving Sarah the same disdainful look she gave her in high school on a daily basis. Sarah's eyes narrowed; her mind flashed back to that hallway where her locker was. How Heather and her "mean girls" loved to humiliate the students that didn't "fit in."

Across the gym, she saw Dick Duffy, tight end for the football team and a complete sleazebag at all other times. She remembered him shoving Mark Ratner into his own locker, which was right next to hers. And then he decided twisted the knife further.

 _Hey, Jenny. You must be getting pretty lonely with your dad locked up. Call me if you ever need a man around the house._

Sarah remembered all too well how Heather and her cohorts enjoyed hearing that.

"Hello? Earth to Sarah. Come in, Sarah."

Sarah finally shook herself out of her funk and turned to Chuck.

"There you are," he said, giving her a smile.

Sarah looked at the ground. "Just a few bad memories resurfacing."

"Happens to everyone. We always picture high school much worse than it really was. It's a tough time. Trying to figure out who you are and what you want to do with the rest of your life while constantly distracted with raging hormones."

"It was…more than that."

"OK, maybe it was. But it's back there and you're here. Look around this gym and tell me you see one person here who's doing better than you. I seriously doubt you'll find one."

Sarah took a look around. Chuck was right. How many of the people in the gym could say they were one of the most famous people in the country who also happened to be one of its best spies? And had an incredibly talented team working with her? And was holding hands with someone who was a better person than just about anyone she had ever met?

"Thanks, Chuck," she said gently, giving Chuck's hand a squeeze.

Chuck nodded towards the dance floor. "Is Carina OK? She looks a little rattled."

"This sort of gathering makes her very uncomfortable," Sarah replied, feeling rare sympathy for her best friend. "She had high school troubles of a different kind."

Sarah then observed someone walking Carina's way. "But I think I can put her in a good mood." Sarah switched on her earpiece. "Carina, at your nine. Tall blonde male."

Carina looked to her left. "Is that the guy you told me about?"

"Dick Duffy, yeah. Care to give him a little something?"

"Wow, Carina Miller," Dick Duffy said as he walked up. "I must say, you're even hotter in person than you are on the show. I'll just bet you'd go nuclear if we found a hotel room somewhere. Up for it?"

Carina gave him one of her patented 'come hither' expressions. "My pleasure," she replied, although it was meant for Sarah and not Dick.

Dick led her out of the back entrance to the gym where his car was. "My name is Dick. Dick Duffy. Might want to hear it now since you'll be moaning it all night."

"You know, Sarah told me a lot about you," Carina said innocently.

"Did she?"

"Mm-hmm. She wanted me to give you a message."

"I can't wait to hear it," Dick replied, his sleaziness turned up to maximum.

Carina smiled, stepped towards Dick, and kneed him hard in the groin. Dick doubled over in pain. Carina sent a spinning kick to his skull, knocking him out completely.

She stood over his unconscious body. "Dick," she said in absolute condescension. "You certainly are."

Carina straightened her dress and walked back into the reunion. She walked over to the bar and spotted Chuck.

"Where's Sarah?" she asked as she ordered a Jack-and-Coke.

"She's checking with Jimmy and Case. She wanted to make sure we had all the hallways covered. It's a pretty big building. There are a lot of places the deal could go down."

"And you haven't seen anything out here?"

"Not so far. I'm keeping an eye out."

Carina nodded. "Good. I must say, you've done a lot more than most of our assets. Certainly you're less of a pain."

"Thanks. Jimmy's told me a few stories of some of your more…interesting…assignments." Chuck gave Carina a long look as she started to have the same flustered look she had earlier. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. "This just isn't my favorite place."

"Are you sure? Usually, you enjoy being the center of attention. It's part of the reason why we wanted you in here tonight."

Carina was starting to become agitated. "Look, I'm sure Sarah told you how rough high school was for her. I didn't have it much easier. But the circumstances were different."

"What do you mean?"

Carina snapped her head in Chuck's direction. "Nothing! Can we drop this, please?"

Chuck stared in shock. He never expected to see what was happening right then.

There were a few tears in Carina's eyes.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Chuck stammered.

Carina exhaled slowly. "Not your fault. For once, we have to babysit someone who is a very decent human being. I'm not used to that. I'm not used to them wanting to know about me. Well, anything outside the bedroom, anyway."

"Sarah has told me I'm a great listener," Chuck said quietly. "I mean, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But you're clearly in pain and you don't deserve to be."

Chuck steeled himself. "Does it have to do with East Grande?"

Carina turned to him. "Did Sarah tell you? Did Jimmy?"

Chuck shook his head. "Jimmy only told me the town, and that you don't like talking about it. He said nothing else."

Carina downed the last of her drink and ordered another. She took the drink and pulled Chuck away from the crowd. "We moved around a few times growing up. I have a younger sister, Charlotte. We were in and out of a lot of foster homes. We came to East Grande, Texas when I was a sophomore. I kept to myself, but it was one of those football towns. You know, like they had on _Friday Night Lights_ and _Varsity Blues_? You couldn't really be by yourself in a town like that. I started going to parties with the football team, and then one Friday when I was a senior, I was drinking way too much and the quarterback of the football team started hitting on me. I thought he liked me, but back then I was too stupid to know any better. He takes me out back and we start making out. I only wanted for things to get that far, but…"

Carina didn't complete the sentence. She didn't need to. Chuck's mouth dropped open in shock.

"Oh, my God. That's…oh, my God. I am so sorry for making you tell me this. But please tell me you didn't let him get away with this."

Carina looked at the ground. "I tried not to, but he was the high school quarterback who was third generation at that school and took the team to the playoffs three straight years. And who was I? Just some nomad who only moved into town two years earlier. I heard it all: I was asking for it, I deserved it, I entrapped him…"

"No. No way in hell! That bastard should be in jail for what he did! Nobody deserves to go through that!"

"That happens way too often in our country. People blame the victim. The county sheriff wasn't going to keep his job throwing the star quarterback in the slammer, no matter what he did."

Chuck paused and calmed himself. "You know, I'd bet anything Casey or Jimmy would be happy to take care of that guy for you."

A smile came to Carina's face; the biggest one Chuck had ever seen on her. And unlike most of the times when she smiled, Chuck knew this was authentic.

"Those two are like the brothers I wish I had," Carina said. "Charlotte and me…we haven't talked since I enrolled at Alabama and was recruited into the Agency. She lives in Omaha now and is an office manager with a husband and two kids. But Case and Jimmy. You're right, Chuck. They would do that. John would pummel a guy for me just for taking my taxicab. I knew about that soft interior long before Ilsa returned, even if he won't admit to it. And Jimmy…Sarah's right. He's a giant teddy bear. He even saved me from that separatist group singlehandedly. I tease him a lot because I love him. Same with John. Those three are my family now. The family I never really had as a child."

"But you don't need them taking care of this guy?"

Carina shook her head. "Intelligence was not one of this bastard's strong suits. He got caught two years later trying to hold up a gas station in El Paso when he was backup quarterback at UTEP. Got five years in jail and was shanked in the middle of a prison gang fight. Honestly, I didn't feel avenged or even relieved. I was well into training with the government by then."

Chuck looked at her for a long time. "So that's what drives you on this job. You're trying to prove you're better than your past. That you won't be a victim anymore. I hate to shatter your illusions, but you were always better than that. You're on the best team of agents in the country and you deserve to be. I mean, I'm still alive because of you. You don't have to prove how good you are. You're already amazing."

"Chuck, could you and Carina come out to the surveillance van?" Sarah said over their earpieces.

"On our way," Carina replied. "Thanks, Chuck," Carina said, taking his face in her hands and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "It's pretty obvious what Sarah sees in you."

The two walked to the surveillance van parked at the opposite end of the school. Jimmy slid the door open and hopped out. "Sarah wants you to have a look at the footage and see if you flash on anything."

Chuck got in the van, leaving Carina and Jimmy outside. Jimmy stretched, trying to loosen himself after sitting in the van for three straight hours.

"You OK?" Jimmy asked. "You look a little…I don't know, actually. I've never seen that look from you before."

Carina went to Jimmy and wrapped her arms around him. Jimmy was surprised but returned the hug.

"Just needed some time with the teddy bear," Carina said.

Jimmy furrowed his brow in confusion momentarily before he figured it out. "You mean Chuck got to you, too? This is unprecedented."

"What can I say? The man is an expert at being a good friend."

"I'll bet you're really happy now about taking care of Gruber."

Carina nodded. "Thanks for helping me with that. There's no way I was going to let Sarah or Chuck's sister go through the pain of losing him. I'm just worried Beckman might pull the same bullshit stunt like Graham did one of these days."

"Not to worry," Jimmy replied with a tiny smile. "She got the message."

Casey stuck his head out of the surveillance van. "Miller, Slade, come have a look at this."

Carina and Jimmy entered the van. "Jimmy, do we have every part of the school covered?" Sarah asked.

"Every square inch," Jimmy said. "I was even watching areas nobody could get into tonight, like the main office and the football field. What's going om?"

"We haven't seen Banacheck or anybody else come in and it's 9:35."

Jimmy threw his hands up. "We're early for Banacheck. Maybe she won't arrive until exactly 9:45."

"Casey, did we have Mark Ratner watched the whole time?" Chuck asked.

"Every second," Casey replied.

"Let's go through that footage."

Casey rewound the footage of Mark Ratner at the party. Most of the night, he walked by himself, occasionally shaking the hand of fellow Cougars he remembered.

"That's weird," Chuck said to himself.

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

"Look at Mark. He's walking around like he's really there for the reunion. He isn't looking back and forth, he isn't nervous. If I was about to sell top secret data and commit treason, I'd be at least a little nervous."

Everyone watched the footage. "You're right," Carina said.

Jimmy quickly went to the computer. "I'm going to establish a link with Winthrop-Keller's network and see if any files have been accessed recently." Jimmy scanned through the information. "Nothing. If Ratner copied files, he did a helluva job covering his tracks. I can't find anything that would prove he did."

"So either we have a cold-blooded brilliant terrorist…" Chuck began.

"…or we've had the wrong person the whole time." Sarah concluded.

Sarah and Casey quickly switched the monitors back to the live feed. "Walker, take a look," Casey said.

Everybody stared at two individuals walking into the gym. Chuck had a flash.

"Those two work for Fulcrum, Sarah," Chuck said quickly.

"Get audio on Mark and Heather," Sarah ordered. Casey punched up the appropriate audio bugs. Everybody watched the two men go towards Heather Ratner while Mark stood at the other end of the gymnasium.

"Find my husband and bring him to the locker room," Heather told the two men. "The deal's going down any minute."

"Aaah, hell," Jimmy growled. "We should have known that bitch was in on this."

Sarah's eyes widened. "She wasn't going to sell files to Banacheck. She was going to sell Mark to her!"

"Makes sense," Casey replied in agreement. "The Iranians need someone to upgrade their technology. Ratner's the perfect candidate."

"We better do something right now," Carina said as she pointed to one of the monitors. "Banacheck's here with a lot of muscle."

Everybody looked at the image of Banacheck walking towards the school with four bodyguards.

"Chuck, go back into the gym," Sarah ordered. "Grab Mark and get him to Jimmy so we can get him out of here. Casey, you and Carina take care of Banacheck and her goons. I'll take care of Heather. Her name's at the top of my list of 'people who need a good ass-kicking'."

Everyone exited the van quickly and ran for the school.

Chuck entered the gym and looked for Mark Ratner. He was nowhere to be found. "Sarah, I don't see him."

"And I don't see those two who were with Heather," Sarah replied. "Check the hallways, check everywhere."

Chuck ran out of the back of the gym to the hallway that ran parallel to it.

~/^\~

"Heather?"

Sarah removed her shoes as she went down the hallway, better to not have Heather Chandler hear the click of her heels on the concrete as she walked towards the girls' locker room.

"Why did you do it, Heather?"

"Revenge of the cheerleaders," Heather called out from behind a set of lockers. "We marry the geeks because they get rich, but my husband wasn't ambitious enough. And I'm going to be rich giving him up."

Sarah walked slowly with her gun drawn. She then felt a leg kick the gun out of her hands. Heather leaped up onto a bench and sent a punch at Sarah, knocking her back. She tried to send a roundhouse kick at Sarah, but Sarah stepped back and avoided the boot. Sarah threw a hard punch to knock Heather back. Heather fought back by sending two consecutive kicks to Sarah's face. Sarah threw several punches, all of which Heather blocked. Heather then jumped down, sending a kick at Sarah to knock her down. She took the opportunity to get away from the dazed Sarah.

~/^\~

"Who are you? Let me go!"

Mark Ratner struggled against the two men who had caught up to him. They tried to carry him outside to where the deal was to take place.

"Help! Someone help!" Mark screamed.

One of the men took Mark and slammed him into a locker, knocking him unconscious and forcing the locker door open.

Jimmy walked in from the other direction. One of the men aimed his gun at Jimmy, who immediately spun and kicked the gun out of his hands. Jimmy went on the offensive, sending the man to the ground with a butterfly kick and a vicious roundhouse. The second man flew and Jimmy and tackled him to the ground. He pinned Jimmy to the ground with his knees and pounded on Jimmy's head. Jimmy kicked up and grabbed the man with his legs, pulling him backwards and off of him. Both got up quickly. The man tried to send a vertical kick at Jimmy but he ducked away from it and spun on his foot to trip the man again with an outstretched leg. Jimmy tried to get up again, but the man leaped at him, knocking Jimmy's head into the open locker. He got on top of him and planted both hands on Jimmy's throat. Jimmy struggled to break free. He reached behind him in the locker and found a pen. He flipped the cap off and plunged it into the thug's neck. Heather's lackey staggered back, choking as blood came out. Jimmy got up, threw the man's head into the locker, and slammed the door over and over until he was still.

He looked at the pen he found inside the locker that saved his life. "Try doing that with a smartphone, kids," he rasped.

Chuck came running around the corner. "What…oh my God."

Neither of them had time to say anything as Mark Ratner started to come around.

"Get him to the van, Chuck," Jimmy said quickly. "I'll go help Case and Carina."

"Wait, what?" Chuck said in shock. "What the hell should I say?"

"Don't tell him who we are! Make something up!" Jimmy shouted as he ran down the hall and out of sight.

Chuck went to Mark and pulled him gently to his feet.

"Charles Carmichael?" Mark asked in disbelief. He then saw the two bodies on the ground. "Oh, my God! How did you do that? You…you saved my life!"

Chuck froze; he didn't know what to tell Mark. Suddenly it clicked in.

"It's Special Agent Charles Carmichael," he said confidently. "Former Special Agent, to be specific. The studio hired me to be Sarah's personal bodyguard. The studio demanded the best, and the company sent me. Sarah's not even aware of it. She thinks she met a nice guy and chose to date him. I blend in with the cast and crew as best as I can."

"Wow, that's…that is amazing!" Mark followed Chuck out of the building. "But who were those two guys and why were they trying to capture me?"

Chuck exhaled slowly. "The FBI and the NSA will fill in the details. But if I were you, I'd get a good divorce lawyer.

Mark's eyes widened. "Heather? She did this?" Chuck nodded sadly. "How could I have been such an idiot? I should have known a girl that hot would never fall for me."

They reached the surveillance van, and Mark sat down in it. "It's…I'm sorry. This is stupid. I mean, how can I expect a cool guy like you to understand?"

Chuck put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "You know what, Mark? Sometimes, the nerd gets the girl."

~/^\~

Casey and Carina slipped outside by the main entrance. Sasha led her four bodyguards towards the entrance to the gymnasium.

"Federal agents, don't move!" Casey shouted as Carina and he aimed their guns.

"Ubey ikh (Kill them)!" Sasha shouted as she ran into the gymnasium. Her four bodyguards pulled out their guns and opened fire. Casey and Carina ducked down as they shot at the bodyguards. One of them went down as the other three dove for cover. Carina crawled over to Casey, who shielded himself with the side of the building. He then dove out in the open, rolling in the grass and firing away. He took out another of Sasha's men as a third one took aim at him. Carina opened fire from the side of the building, dropping that man. Casey and Carina kept firing away until they ran out of ammunition but couldn't get the last man.

"Get up," the man commanded as he walked into the open with his gun pointed at Casey. Casey slowly got up and put his hands out as Carina joined him.

"I win," the man said in a thick Russian accent as he cocked his gun.

Carina grabbed Casey's shoulder and swung into the air, knocking the man's gun away with her left foot as her right connected with the man's head, sending him to the ground.

"Class dismissed," Casey said, standing over the unconscious bodyguard.

"Thanks, Case," Carina said in appreciation. "That's the best thing about you: you're always there to lend a hand."

Casey nodded in agreement. "Or a shoulder, as it were."

"And sometimes other fun parts, too," Carina purred, giving Casey a good imitation of Chuck's eyebrow dance.

~/^\~

Sarah stepped into the girls' shower looking for Heather, who ran in from behind and delivered a kick to Sarah's head, sending her against the pipes. Sarah wrenched off one of the pipes and swung it at Heather, who ducked out of the way and grabbed the pipe Sarah managed to knock off the showers. The entire shower filled with water as the two used the pipes like baseball bats, each trying to nail the other. Sarah started to get the upper hand, knocking Heather's pipe out of her hand and then delivering a hard shot to her face. Heather ducked behind the pipes, and Sarah tried to stab through the showers with the pipe in her hands. Heather grabbed it and yanked Sarah towards her, landing a punch to Sarah's face. Heather took the opportunity to use the pipe to pull Sarah back by her throat.

"You should have been suspicious of me from the start," Heather jeered. "I mean, why would a girl like me ever fall in love with a dorky nerd like him?"

Sarah gritted her teeth. "You'd be surprised."

Sarah snapped her head back and nailed Heather in the nose. She then grabbed the pipe and pulled hard, sending Heather over the showers and hard onto the tile floor. Heather swung her leg to trip Sarah, sending her to the ground. Heather quickly got up and ran out of the locker room. Sarah got up and gave chase.

~/^\~

"Oh, no."

Chuck ran back into the school and looked for the team but couldn't find anybody. Nobody was answering on comms, either. He didn't know where to go to find them. He took a quick look in the gym, but they weren't there. Neither was Sasha Banacheck.

He ran upstairs to try to get into the gym from the upper balcony to get a better view. He still did not see Banacheck or the team. He went back to the door through which he entered, but it was locked on his side. He ran to the other doors in the balcony section, but all of them were locked. He had only two options: use the ladder at the far end to climb to the roof or jump over the railing and have all the people there see him acting crazy.

He chose the lesser of the two evils and went for the ladder.

~/^\~

Heather found Sarah's gun lying on the floor and grabbed it, aiming it back and forth.

"Now I gotta ask: how did you wind up working for the Feds?" Heather called out. "It's crazy; you play an agent on TV and you're a real agent to boot?"

Heather continued to walk slowly and look in all directions. "I mean, if you had told me in high school that Jenny Burton wanted to grow up to be an agent, I would've said "Dream, jailbird's daughter. Dream." Guess you didn't follow in Daddy's footsteps after all."

Heather turned when she heard the slam of a locker. But it was a diversion; Sarah ran at her from the opposite direction and landed a hard kick to her stomach. Heather screamed as she was knocked back into a trophy case, shattering the glass. She stood there and waited for Heather to attack again. But Heather bore an evil grin and aimed the gun.

Sarah reached for one of the throwing daggers on her leg and threw it at the large cougar head plaque above the trophy case, sending it crashing down onto Heather and knocking her out.

Sarah walked up to the unconscious Heather. "Go Cougars," she spat at her.

Sarah then heard a gun click behind her. "Don't move."

Sarah glanced behind her to see Sasha Banacheck with a gun aimed right at her.

"Let's go," Sasha said in a threatening voice, waving Sarah over with the gun.

Sasha kept a few steps back of Sarah as the two walked out to the entrance. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy aimed their weapons at Sasha.

"Bring me the engineer or your leader is dead," Sasha threatened.

"Someone shoot this bitch," Sarah ordered.

Casey approached slowly while Carina and Jimmy tried to flank Sasha, who kept Sarah close to her so none of them had a clean shot.

"I want that engineer now!" Sasha yelled.

Chuck peeked down from the roof and saw Sarah with Sasha Banacheck holding her hostage. He began to panic. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy couldn't fire without hitting her.

"Shoot her!" Sarah shouted.

Chuck took ten steps back on the roof. He then ran for the edge and jumped off. He reached for the large banner labeled "Welcome Buchanan Alumni" hanging over the doors.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" he screamed as he grabbed the banner and it came down. He swung right into Sarah and Sasha, knocking both of them down. Sarah immediately got to her knees and took out Banacheck with a single punch while Chuck landed in the bushes on the other side of the doors.

Everybody put their guns away in relief. Jimmy walked over to Chuck.

"Um, Chuck? The stupid, crazy stunts? That's, uh, that's my schtick. Cut it out."

Chuck shook his head in annoyance as Jimmy helped him up. Sarah went over to him as Casey and Carina cuffed Sasha and found the Cipher in her purse.

"Chuck and I will go check on Mark. Are you guys OK out here?" Sarah asked.

"No problem," Carina replied. "And don't worry. Dick Duffy got exactly what he deserved.

Sarah smiled at her best friend as she entered the gym with Chuck. Suddenly a spotlight was aimed at her.

"And the queen of the reunion is…Jennifer Burton!"

The crowd cheered loudly as the announcement was made. Sarah stared in shock, still barefoot and with fresh bruises and a cut lip from her fight with Heather Chandler. The head of the reunion committee ran to her and placed a tiara on her head. She couldn't help but smile.

"Casey was right," she said quietly to Chuck. "Payback feels so good."

Chuck laughed and pulled her in for a hug.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
January 17, 2016  
1:00 PM PST**_

Sarah walked to the door to her hotel room when she heard the knock. She opened it to find Chuck waiting there with a paper bag. She smiled at him and he smiled back. He then reached into the bag and pulled out a raw hamburger patty.

She laughed. "Isn't that supposed to be a raw steak? Don't we pay you enough on the show?"

"You do, but I was getting all confused," he replied as he walked in and sat down. "I mean, should have I gotten a T-bone, a flank steak, tenderloin. This was just easier." He handed the patty to Sarah, who put it over the black eye she had. "Plus, I got you a cooked one. Just the way you like it. Medium-rare…"

"…with extra pickles?" she said hopefully.

"Come on! Who do you think you're dealing with here?"

"Well, I never doubted you for a moment, Special Agent Charles Carmichael." She put the cooked burger down on the table. "I think doubting you is a very bad thing to do. I mean, look at what you did last night. You were incredible. And what you did for all of us…I mean, not even counting that very brave leap you made…"

Chuck smiled shyly and looked at the ground. "So I guess the big secret about you is that you used to be just a typical high school student." He gave her a gentle look. "I wish I knew what happened to change that…"

 _ **San Diego, CA  
April 14, 1998  
3:45 PM PDT**_

 _She waited for the police to leave with him and ran for the woods, finding the tree with the broken branches. She got on her knees and dug into the ground. She uncovered the box the was located there. Taking out a knife, she cut the tape off of the box to discover thousands of dollars of cash inside. There was also a note._

In Case of Emergency, Love You, Daddy.

 _She looked around. She had never been so scared in her life. She was on her own, and the only person she could rely on now was herself…_

She sensed the presence of someone nearby. She immediately took the knife and flung in the direction of the sound. It embedded itself into a tree trunk mere inches from the source of the rustling branches. A large man in a black suit and striped tie looked at the knife and nodded in approval.

"Nice toss," he said, pulling the knife out of the tree trunk and walked over to Jenny.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I'm the man who put your father in prison," he replied. Jenny quickly grabbed the box and backed away as the man continued to walk towards her. "The question is: who are you? In San Diego, you go by Jenny Burton. In Wisconsin, it's Katie O'Connell. And in Cleveland, it's Rebecca Franco. Funny thing is, when I looked at your birth certificate, it said your name was…"

"I get your point," she replied angrily. "What do you want?"

"Your father scammed some pretty dangerous people. I saved his life by putting him in jail.

Jenny slammed the box shut and placed it under her arm. "Well, don't expect a thank-you note."

"I can save your life, too."

Jenny looked at him for a moment. If what he said about her father was true, it wouldn't take long for these people to find her and try to kill her, too. She made a decision. She put her wrists out, expecting this man to put handcuffs on her.

"No, not that way," he said softly. "Your dad trained you pretty well. The CIA can do even better. You like names so much, hmm? What do you think about Sarah Walker?"

The man handed Jenny's knife back to her.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
January 17, 2016  
1:00 PM PST**_

"Sarah? Sarah Walker? Hello…"

Sarah brought herself back to the present. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about her rough past. But she knew she had come a long way. Through the training, the missions, how she almost burned herself out before meeting Bryce, being promoted into this show cover, and having the most talented people in the government working with her, she knew Graham was right that day. She was a better person today than she was all those years ago in Cleveland or Wisconsin or San Diego. The last several years were the best years of her life. And the asset in front of her, who successfully melted Casey's hardened shell, loosened Carina's guarded persona, and made Jimmy even crazier than he was before, and even saved her life three times, made her appreciate all she had now.

"OK, fine," she said after a pause that seemed to take forever. "I'll answer one question about my past. You've earned that much."

Chuck sat there and smiled, contemplating her offer. "Hmmm, no thanks. I don't need to know more, not about who you were. Because as much as you don't think so, I know who you are. A girl I'd like to share a cheeseburger with."

Sarah pulled her legs up under her on the chair and gave him a big smile, which elicited that grin from him that always made her day, no matter how bad it was.

"Should I get a knife?" he asked. "I'll get…"

"That won't be necessary," she replied. She lifted her pant leg and pulled out one of her throwing daggers, handing it to Chuck.

Chuck looked at her holster in surprise. "That's awesome…and a little disturbing." Sarah laughed. "This is going to be messy. Do you want a big half or a small half?"

They enjoyed the cheeseburger together.


	16. Getting Your Mojo Back

_Hello. Well, I did warn you it would take me time to get the next chapter started. I just didn't know how right I would be. To make matters worse, I was almost to 4,000 words and I hadn't even gotten to the opening credits of "Chuck vs. the Ex." I had intended this chapter to cover that entire episode, but I have to proceed carefully on what I do next._

 _Although this does mark the return of Jill Roberts, I always thought Chuck was treated quite unfairly by Sarah and Casey in this episode, so I decided to change things up a bit. Since I knew a major logistical point would have to be accounted for in this chapter, I figured I'd go the full Monty and come up with a different approach while still keeping the general storyline._

 _It's interesting the way writing works sometimes. As you may have guessed by now, the whole "Ellen" story was basically a way to put in a meta-reference about Sarah not being able to talk with an Australian accent. That was mainly for laughs and partly inspired by this story, where she pretended to be an Australian doctor. Except Yvonne didn't speak in her own voice; she spoke the way Americans think Aussies sound. But what worked even better is the talk Chuck and Sarah had right after Sarah wanted to go ballistic about the big Ellen secret coming out. I think that was a big help in solidifying the relationship between Chuck and Sarah, and I didn't even plan it until I actually wrote it. I was just trying to write a transition to get the team to San Diego._

 _If you have any ideas on how the Jill storyline should proceed, please let me know. And thanks to EastCoastCaptain, Supesfan18, and BDaddyDL for their suggestions, and I apologize if I forgot to mention you if you sent in suggestions. On the good side, this arc will take a few chapters to run. Or maybe that's a bad thing. You decide._

 _Thanks as always, please leave reviews as always, and all material I didn't think up is the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions...as always._

 _P.S. The music thing is a setup for later._

* * *

 _ **Pi Delta Pi Sorority, Stanford University – Palo Alto, CA  
April 18, 2003  
3:00 PM PST**_

Chuck Bartowski walked down the street, taking in the warm, spring day and the students out enjoying themselves on an early Friday afternoon. Like any other weekend at Stanford, the students partied hard because they studied hard during the week and needed to blow off steam. This was the first time he had returned to the campus since January, when he was kicked out of school and forced to take that demeaning job at the Buy More to survive. Ellie tried to be supportive, but like most med school students, she was swamped with studying and had so little money. Chuck had to help pay the rent and utilities and tried as best as he could. But $11 per hour only went so far. And the humiliation of working at that store, even with his best friend there as one of his co-workers, made this trip to Palo Alto an absolute need.

He had to find out _why_. Why was he expelled from school? Why did Bryce betray him? What did he do to earn Jill's contempt?

"Hey Chuck!" someone said as Chuck passed by, high-fiving him. "That's the dude that got kicked out," the same guy whispered to his friend, which Chuck still heard. As if Chuck didn't feel small enough already.

"Oh, hey. If you don't mind, I'm just going to borrow these." he said a group of people who were playing ping pong right outside of Jill's sorority, taking a paddle and a few ping pong balls. "Continue with your game. And I'm going to need to turn this off." He silenced their radio.

Chuck took the paddle and smashed a ball up to Jill's window on the second floor, hitting it. "Jill!" He sent two more ping-pong balls at the window. "Hey Jill! It's Chuck! Please, I-I want to explain my side face-to-face."

The window opened…and Shari, Jill's roommate, appeared. "If Jill wanted to speak to you, she would have returned one of your 28 phone calls."

"Hi…Shari. Is she up there?"

Shari rolled her eyes and walked away from the window. "Jill…" Chuck called out again. "I-I was on break at…at work. I'm actually working at a Buy More of all places, yeah. And I drove 346 miles straight from Burbank to see you and to tell you that I still love you."

The crowd behind him laughed in embarrassment. "Loser!" someone called out. It was certainly apropos; Chuck never felt like a bigger one at that moment. He began to turn away.

"Chuck!"

He turned back to see Jill at the window. "Hey, hey Jill! I think, um, I've thoroughly, publically embarrassed myself enough, so you think maybe we could go talk over some coffee or something like that?"

"It's too late, Chuck. It's over."

"When you say 'it's over', you mean, like, this conversation's over, right? To be continued at the Starbucks?"

Shari returned to the window and pushed Jill aside. "She's dating Bryce Larkin now, Chuck," she announced, clearly reveling in turning the knife in Chuck even more.

Chuck was floored. "Bryce…"

"Deal with it!" Shari barked at him before leaving.

"Told you that guy's a loser," someone in the crowd said.

"Is that true?" Chuck asked Jill, barely able to hold it together.

"I'm sorry, Chuck," Jill said, withdrawing back into her room. The students on the sidewalk turned the radio back on and returned to their Friday, mildly entertained by the relationship drama they had just witnessed.

Chuck turned and headed back down the street. He drove to Stanford with the fear that he would return to Burbank in worse shape than when he left. He just didn't realize how bad it would be.

 _ **Sheraton Universal Hotel – Universal City, CA  
March 1, 2016  
11:00 AM PST**_

"Just for the record, I'm supposed be doing the ass-kicking this week!"

Jen Burton rolled her eyes. There was no question Lance McCall was one of the most talented spies she had ever worked with. He was also one of the best friends she had ever known. Those two things were important, as he was undeniably one of the most infuriating people she had ever met.

"Will you please finish and quit worrying about the bad guys?" Jen yelled at him. "Jill and Duke will be here in one minute and we need to get these files to them. Then we can take down the entire organization! I'll handle the ass-kicking!"

"You're not even supposed to be here! They told you to take a vacation."

"They did not."

"Oh, so the Director ordering you to take a week off and escorting you out of his office with two security guards carrying automatic weapons was…what? Just a suggestion?"

Two henchmen burst through the door. Lance kicked backwards to nail one man in the chin then swept his leg to knock the other man down, all without turning around.

"See that? Hands never even left the keyboard!" Lance barked. "Now get your ass out of here!"

"You're ordering ME around?" Jen was livid.

"You always insist we take time off to clear our minds. Now it's your turn to relax."

"My mind IS clear! I am relaxed!"

"You call this relaxing? How the hell will you relax tomorrow? Assassinate the leader of Boko Haram?"

"I'm not going to do that just to relax."

"Good thing, then. They already gave that assignment to Duke."

"WHAT!?"

"So you'll get the next vile despot. Wait your damn turn!"

The door behind them slid open to reveal Jill and Duke. "Got the intel?" Duke asked. "And what's she doing here?"

Lance pulled the USB drive out of the computer. "Being her usual self," he replied.

"Jen, you were ordered to take a break," Jill said. "You need to relax."

"I AM RELAXED!" Jen roared.

Jill rolled her eyes. "Clearly."

"Jen, I've got five words to say," Lance said sharply. At that very moment, the other door burst open to reveal two dozen pissed off henchmen. Lance put the data in Jen's hand and shoved her out of the door into Jill's and Duke's waiting arms.

"GET HER ASS TO BARBADOS!" Lance yelled, pulling out a knife and throwing it at the hydraulics to the door, forcing it shut. He did two consecutive backflips, pulled out two guns mid-flip, and opened fire on the bad guys. Several of them took hits and fell as Lance ran for the stairwell and ascended.

A door to the roof of the building burst open and Lance emerged from it. He ran to the edge of the roof only to find no way off. He ducked behind an air vent and fired away as more enemies emerged on the roof. He eventually ran out of ammunition and was surrounded.

They moved him by the edge of the roof, and a man in a sharp suit walked up to him in triumph. Lance knew the man quite well. Lance had brought down Daniel Quinn's organization in his first assignment as an agent ten years ago. However, it appeared Quinn had rebuilt it.

"Lance McCall," Quinn teased. "I killed you ten years ago. Why aren't you dead?"

He shrugged. "I suck at it," Lance replied with a smile. "So I thought I would come back for an encore performance."

"Only this time, I win."

Quinn aimed his gun at Lance. "Shame you made two big mistakes, Quinn," Lance said. "Firstly, you concentrated all of your effort on capturing me, which means all the files on your organization are at least ten minutes away by now."

"And the second?" Quinn demanded as he cocked his gun.

Lance glanced back and forth at the two men flanking him. "I never let a little thing like death get in my way."

Lance reached out to grab the guns of the two henchmen on either side of him. He jumped off the roof, firing at Quinn as he did so. He fell towards the ground. He then dropped the weapons, pulled out a piton gun and fired, the piton embedding itself into the building across the street.

"CUT!" Director Pete Lauer called.

Jimmy Slade landed dead-center into the airbag placed in the hotel parking lot. Immediately a half-dozen assistants and stuntmen went to check on him. He got up and waved to the large crowd that had gathered, which erupted into applause when they saw he was OK. He smiled. Even though he would have had no problem doing the stunt over and over, the producers and stunt crew…not to mention the insurance company…preferred that he got it on the first try. They had held their collective breath yesterday when Jimmy had to do the second part of the stunt: swinging from a rope to grab onto a flagpole. But that also only needed one try.

Given what had happened to him since meeting Chuck, this was a piece of cake.

It had been almost six months since Bryce stole the Intersect data and sent it to Chuck. Sarah and her team thought it was going to be a simple retrieval; take back the Intersect data and go home. Nobody ever expected things to go the way they did. And given Jimmy's horrible past regarding the Intersect, he was the most fearful over someone having all of those government secrets in their head. But Chuck kept surprising the four of them at every turn. Thanks to him, they fought off Fulcrum, stopped a Russian crime boss, and apprehended two of the most elusive and dangerous criminals in the world. He knew he was spot on when he told Chuck he was the best asset the team ever had to protect.

And given Chuck was even better as a friend to the team than he was as an asset, it guaranteed the team was well motivated to keep him protected and get the Intersect out of him so he could go on to an even better life.

Sarah had told Chuck he was capable of anything, and certainly nobody on the team could dispute that, especially given he saved Sarah's life again when Sasha Banacheck held her hostage. Jimmy wasn't sure if Chuck would want to join the CIA after the Intersect was out, but Chuck could certainly count on a letter of recommendation from him if he wanted to do so.

"Nice work, Jimmy," Chuck said as Jimmy walked out of the airbag.

"Thanks," Jimmy replied. "Gotta love the irony of this. Everybody was going crazy about me doing the jump when we've both done that in the last couple of months…and for real. No stunt coordinator, no airbag, nothing."

"Maybe that's what I'll do once I get the Intersect out of me."

"Be a stuntman?" Chuck nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I'm sure Ellie would totally embrace you doing that," Jimmy replied with a grin.

"Slade! What's up!"

Jimmy turned in the direction of the voice. "Todd, what is happening!"

LL Cool J walked up to Chuck and Jimmy, shaking Jimmy's hand and giving him a pound-hug. "How have you been? Nice work on the jump there."

"Thanks. I'm doing good." He then pointed to Chuck. "I'm sure you know who this is."

"Carmichael, yes," LL Cool J replied, shaking Chuck's hand. "Going out with the second-most beautiful girl in Hollywood. Lucky guy."

"This is true," Chuck replied, still in shock he was not only talking to LL Cool J, but that Jimmy and he appeared to be old friends.

"Speaking of which, how is Simone?" Jimmy asked.

"She's great. Kids grew up way too fast for us, though. We're gonna be empty nesters before we know it."

"Aaah, you're still young. Give her a big hug for me."

"You got it, man. And when are you coming on LSB? You owe me for the guest spot last season. We want you and C in the third season premiere. Teigen and me think you two are the only ones who could top the Tatums!"

"Hey, the producers talked you into the guest spot. I had nothing to do with it. That was a fun episode, though."

"That it was. Be good, you two," LL replied, giving both Chuck and Jimmy pound-hugs before departing.

Chuck turned to Jimmy. "OK, there isn't a part of that whole conversation I don't need explained."

"Great guy," Jimmy said. "I'm allowed call him by his real name, so I guess he thinks I'm OK. Total family man, by the way. Don't let that hard-ass rapper personality fool you. You saw his guest spot on the show last year, right?" Chuck nodded. "I was just getting started at the time, and he gave me a lot of good advice on how to work the character of Lance McCall. Except now he EP's and hosts _Lip Sync Battle_ and calls me once a month to talk me into going on that show."

"Why don't you? You'd be so awesome! Morgan and me were pissing in our pants laughing when you were on Fallon singing _Baby Got Back_ as Joe Cocker!"

"Because he wants me to go up against Carina." Chuck threw his hands up in confusion. "Chuck, there's no way in hell I'm beating Carina on that show. I could lip-sync Pavarotti and the crowd would still pick her because she'll wear next to nothing and put on some sultry act and kick my ass!"

"God, you are so ridiculous," Chuck chided him. "You and Carina would do better than Channing and Jenna Tatum. You two save the country for a living and have, like, no fear of anything and…"

Chuck suddenly went behind Jimmy and ducked down.

"Uh, Chuck?" Jimmy said. "You're four inches taller than me, so I don't think I make the greatest brick wall for you."

"She's…she's here," Chuck said nervously.

"Who?" Jimmy asked.

Chuck pointed with a very shaky hand across the way. "It's Jill."

Jimmy looked on in confusion. "Jill?"

"Jill."

"Jill…Jill?"

"Jill Jill."

"That Jill?"

"That Jill."

"Your Jill?"

"My Jill."

Jimmy stared for a moment. "She must have been quite a thrill since she's clearly made you lose your will. But that's your Jill?"

"Yes!" Chuck growled in exasperation. "Jill! That Jill! My Jill!"

"Dude, chill! Take a pill! She's making you ill. You look ready to kill over Jill." Chuck looked like he wanted to strangle Jimmy. "Sorry, I thought we had an Inigo Montoya-Fezzik thing going."

"No, we are not rhyming like it's _The Princess Bride_."

"Geez, way to hurt my pride."

"Chuck? Chuck Bartowski."

Jill came up to Chuck and Jimmy. Chuck straightened up. "Jill, hi."

The two got together in a very awkward hug. "This is Jimmy," Chuck said as he pointed in his direction.

"Nice to meet you," Jill said to him, shaking his hand. "Chuck and I go way back. Great stunt you just did."

"Thanks," Jimmy replied shyly, not exactly knowing how to react in front of Chuck's ex. "Were you here to watch the episode being filmed?"

"I got here early. There's a medical conference at the hotel starting tomorrow." She turned to Chuck. "I got my PhD in biomedical engineering."

"Did you?" Chuck said.

"Yeah. I'll be giving a presentation at the conference on infectious diseases. But you seem to be doing quite well, dating Sarah Walker."

"Why…yes. Yes, things are going great."

A man walked up to the three. "Oh, and this is my boss," Jill continued. "Dr. Guy LaFleur."

Jimmy went to shake his hand, but LaFleur pulled his hands back. "I work with germs, so…you know…"

"Right, of course," Jimmy replied. He glanced over at Chuck, who appeared to be frozen. He turned to Jill and LaFleur. "Well, enjoy the conference. Stop by the studio if you want and we'll give you the nickel tour."

"Great," Jill replied. "See you later, Chuck. I'm staying at the Hotel Waldron. Maybe we can catch up more."

Jill and LaFleur departed. Jimmy turned to Chuck. "You flashed?"

Chuck nodded in pain. "Is anybody in my life not in the Intersect?"

"Did you flash on Jill or LaFleur?"

"LaFleur. I think he's produced or will be producing some type of biological weapon."

Jimmy was chagrined. "OK, let's get everybody together and see what's going on."

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 1, 2016  
1:00 PM PST**_

"Your ex-girlfriend's boss, Guy LaFleur, is the head research scientist for the European company Cole-MacGregor Pharmaceuticals," Beckman told Chuck as she analyzed the report Jimmy had sent her. "MI-6 has reports that he may have developed a bioweapon which he plans to sell to the highest bidder."

"Is Jill involved?" Chuck asked.

"It's your job to find out, Chuck. The team will surveil Dr. LaFleur. We need you to reconnect with Jill. Find out what she knows about Guy. Meet with her and see if you flash on anything she says or anyone you meet."

The screen went blank, and Chuck slumped into his chair.

"What's wrong, Chuck?" Carina asked.

"She…she doesn't get it. Does anybody get it?" Chuck's anger was building. "She wants me to talk with my ex? OK, she destroyed me. She took all of my confidence, my mojo…"

"You had mojo?" Casey asked in confusion, which could easily be interpreted as sarcasm.

"I was…on my way! Oh, and she also slept with Bryce Larkin."

"Hmph. Who hasn't."

"Chuck, I know she hurt you, but this is very important," Sarah said gently. "You've done a lot for the CIA and it's not fair to make you responsible for this, but you're our best shot at getting any information from her."

Chuck sat there in silence. Jimmy timidly waved his hand. "Uh, not to be a complete pain in the ass…"

"You mean you aren't one by default?" Casey quipped.

Jimmy gave Casey an evil look before turning back to the team. "…but how does Chuck get his ex to open up to him when he's 'dating' someone way better?"

Chuck looked at Jimmy for a moment before staring out into space. He then straightened in his chair and turned to Sarah.

"We have to break up."

Everyone stared in shock at Chuck. "Break up?" Sarah asked.

Chuck nodded as a wave of confidence began to build in him. "We let it leak that Sarah and I decided to 'just be friends'. But Jill will automatically assume Sarah dumped me. I mean, why would I dump her?"

"Whoah, whoah, wait." Jimmy waved his hands back and forth. "Think this through, Chuck. Do you know how bad you're going to look to the entire country? There is no way we can spin this story without turning you into an asshole. Nobody will ever take your side over Sarah's. To the public, she's the ass-kicking Julia Roberts."

"That's the beauty of it. Anyone who knows me well enough won't believe the press and will assume she dumped me, including Jill. Then I can play the sympathy card and get close to her."

"But that would make Sarah look bad to Ellie, Devon, and Morgan," Carina countered. "You'd have to keep up the charade with them, too. You'd have to act devastated in their eyes, and they may resent both you and Sarah when we put you two back together. Is it worth putting your family and friends through all of that?"

"Is it worth getting that biological weapon back if LaFleur is trying to sell one?"

Sarah stared at Chuck for what felt like an eternity. She then nodded slowly. "Chuck's right. That's the best course of action. Casey, contact the P.R. department and set up the statement we'll leak to the media. Jimmy and Carina, get ready to be mobbed by the tabloids. Only you two will say anything to them, and only what we want them to hear. We have to keep them away from Chuck as best as we can once this is announced."

Chuck, Casey, and Jimmy exited the conference room. "I was right," Casey said to Chuck. "No brains, but a big set of balls."

"It's the best plan under the circumstances," Chuck replied.

"Besides, love is for suckers."

Chuck looked at his attire as they made it to the elevators. "I wonder what I should wear when I meet Jill," he said to himself.

Casey scoffed. "Sucker."

"Are you sure about this, Sarah?" Carina asked her best friend. "This will be like trying to go through a minefield on a bulldozer."

Sarah nodded. "We need this."

"We've given Chuck the green light to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend, and he's still hung up on her. You and I might be able to handle that scenario, but he's never done anything like this before. I'm worried about both of you. And how it would affect all of us. You may not like what happens. Are you sure you can let him do this and still be able to look in the mirror tomorrow?"

Sarah looked down at the ground. "If someone does get that biological weapon and thousands die because we didn't do our jobs, I sure as hell wouldn't be able to look in the mirror then."

Carina walked over to Sarah and gave her a hug. "OK. We'll take the ride with you. You'll always have that."

A tiny smile graced Sarah's lips. Someone who could crack Carina's shell like Chuck had deserved a shot.

"That's all I ever need," Sarah replied, squeezing her friend tightly.

 _ **O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA  
March 2, 2016  
3:00 PM PST**_

The team quickly discovered the one disadvantage of being one of the most popular TV shows in the world: any little hiccup tended to result in a tabloid feeding frenzy. And the leaked story about Chuck and Sarah's 'breakup' meant they just fed the media a giant steak.

They had prepared for this. Sarah walked right past the gauntlet of cameras with the tiniest tear in her eyes, and Chuck was nowhere to be found. That left Jimmy and Carina to pick up the pieces. They couldn't have had more questions thrown at them if they spent an entire year on _Jeopardy!_

" _What happened, Jimmy?"_

" _Carina, does Charles still work at the studio?"_

" _Who dumped who?"_

" _How can Carmichael be so stupid?"_

"OK, enough!" Jimmy growled. "Yes, Chuck still works here. He didn't get the job because he was Sarah's boyfriend, so why should he get fired for not being her boyfriend? There's no animosity; they're still friends."

"They just need their space," Carina added. "Something they're going to try and get away from all of you. The show is on hiatus for a few weeks anyway. There's two episodes left to film this season."

" _Will Chuck be back next season?"_

Jimmy threw his hands up in surrender. "We haven't even been told if the show will be back, so how can I answer that?"

"We have to go," Carina said and grabbed Jimmy's hand. The two walked away, and the throng of reporters went to their cameras, tablets, and mobile phones to relay the news.

~/^\~

"Chuck!"

Ellie was in shock as Chuck walked into the apartment, his entire body slumped. "Are you OK?" she asked. "I just saw what they were saying on the news."

"It's fine, El," Chuck replied with no enthusiasm at all. "Don't get all big-sistery on me. We…I mean I…"

"No. She had no reason to do that to you. And she was the nicest person in the world! What happened?"

"It's not her, Ellie. She's just…she's under a lot of pressure with the show and being in the spotlight like that. She has all of these exes blabbing off to the tabloids. She couldn't stand to keep putting me through that. I just…" Chuck let the words trail off.

Ellie pulled him into a hug. "I'm so sorry, Chuck. What she did to you is not fair. I don't care what you have to do. If you like someone, you do whatever it takes to make it work."

"Thanks."

"Hey, how about we go out for dinner tonight? Just to get your mind off of things?"

Chuck shook his head. "I'm actually going out somewhere tonight."

"Where?"

"Um, Jill's in town…and she wanted to catch up on old times."

"Jill?"

"She was at the hotel yesterday watching us film and wanted to see how I was doing."

"No, no no no! Absolutely not! There is no scenario where you should be meeting up with the girl who dumped you. Especially after Sarah just did the same thing! I mean, Jill broke your heart and slept with your best friend!"

Chuck exhaled. "For someone who claims they're not an overprotective big sister, you're not very good at it."

"OK, but I just know that she hurt you and I don't want to see you go through that over and over. She broke your heart once; don't let her do it again. But…"

Ellie imitated zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key. "Yeah, you always do that," Chuck replied, giving a little huff of frustration.

 _ **Hotel Waldron – Los Angeles, CA  
March 2, 2016  
8:30 PM PST**_

Jill walked into the lounge. She found Chuck at the bar where he said he would be two hours ago. He hadn't said much to her on the phone, but looking at him now, it was obvious something bad had happened to him since yesterday. Given he had the same look on his face when he left Stanford that day in April when he tried to get her back, she had a highly-educated guess as to why he appeared so downcast.

"Chuck?" she said quietly as she walked up to him. She ordered a drink from the bartender and pointed to Chuck's empty glass , requesting a refill for him.

"Jill, hey," Chuck replied with zero energy. "How are you?"

"I'm good. I heard about what happened. Are you OK?"

"I'm trying to be. I'm just…I don't know what I did wrong. Did I do something to drive her away? Did I not do something and that made her push me away?"

"No, it was definitely not you."

"What, then? I…I lost you. I was still in love with you and you went and slept with Bryce. I never stole those tests."

Jill looked at the ground. "I…I handled that badly. But Bryce found the tests in your room."

"You should have trusted me. You should have believed me."

"I do believe you, Chuck."

"No, I needed you to believe me then."

Jill nodded. "I should have believed you at Stanford. There are a lot of things I should have done differently."

Chuck sat back in his chair. Clearly he was making Jill upset and she didn't deserve it. "I'm sorry. It's just…"

Jill took his hand. "You've had a rough day. I mean, breakups are bad enough. But to have to do it with the whole world watching it's…I can't even imagine it."

Chuck nodded quietly. "Thanks."

~/^\~

"Quite a performance. I'm impressed."

Casey nodded in approval as the team sat outside of the hotel in a surveillance van keeping an eye on both Dr. LaFleur and Chuck and Jill.

"I hope that's all it is," Carina replied. "That bitch doesn't deserve another chance."

"Getting all weepy on us, Miller?" Casey taunted. "Never heard you defend Bartowski like that. You're starting to freak me out."

"Enough, you two," Sarah admonished. "We're in the middle of a mission and we're already out on a big limb letting Chuck do this."

"Guy just ordered some dinner," Jimmy said as he listened in on the bug in his room.

~/^\~

"You know, give me one second," Chuck told Jill. He got up from the bar, walked a few steps away from Jill, and returned with a smile on his face. "OK, that self-pitying loser who was sitting here? Looked a bit like Chuck Bartowski? It turns out he was an impostor. I just kung-fu'd him and he won't be bothering you anymore."

Jill laughed. "Good," she replied. "I always loved this version of you better."

"Me, too," Chuck replied warmly.

"This is…this is what I missed," Jill said, moving closer to Chuck.

"You did?" Chuck moved closer as well.

"One of the things I wish I did differently," Jill purred as she closed her eyes, her lips mere inches from Chuck's.

Outside in the van, Sarah tensed up. She tried to not give away what she was feeling right now, but she knew everybody could see what she saw. They looked a bit tense as well.

Just before Chuck closed his eyes, he caught a glimpse of a waiter grabbing a bottle of wine from the bar and putting it on a room service cart. He began to flash on the man's neck tattoo, seeing images of a beach, a governmental meeting, and several shots of the man murdering various people. He also saw his code name: Wolf Den.

Chuck pulled back quickly. "What's wrong?" Jill asked.

"Nothing! Nothing, sorry. Just caught a glimpse of that waiter getting a bottle of wine. It looked pretty expensive, so I hope he isn't some sort of impostor. Talk about doing something bad."

Jill looked at him in confusion, but the team scrambled to get eyes on the man Chuck identified. Jimmy punched up the elevator camera and saw the waiter enter, hitting the button for the 11th floor.

"Eleventh. That's Guy's floor," Jimmy said quickly, reaching for his gun. Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy poured out of the van with their weapons at the ready.

Wolf Den knocked on LaFleur's door. "Room service, sir," he called out.

LaFleur opened the door. "Just put it over there, please."

Wolf Den wheeled the cart into the room as Guy returned to the desk. He then quietly dead-bolted the door. As the team reached the elevator and went upstairs, Wolf Den came up behind LaFleur and put him in a choke hold. LaFleur tried to break free, but he couldn't get out of Wolf Den's grasp. They fell backwards and smashed the bar. Wolf Den got the upper hand, tossing LaFleur to the ground and kicking him in the head. He then grabbed LaFleur and threw him out of the window

Sarah tried the door. "It's bolted from the inside."

"Stand back," Jimmy warned. He opened fire at the deadbolt with both guns, decimating it. Casey kicked in the door, and Sarah and Carina went charging in. They checked the closets, bathroom, and even under the bed.

"Clear," Sarah said in barely-contained anger.

"Someone has the bioweapon," Carina said in equal anger.

Downstairs, Chuck looked out the window of the bar when he heard what sounded like a scream…and saw LaFleur hit the ground.

"Chuck, Guy's not in his room," Casey said.

Chuck looked in revulsion at the broken body of Guy LaFleur. "I know."


	17. Dying With Dignity

_Hello there. I was originally trying to make this chapter much longer but there was a lot of material I managed to add to the story, even though this particular chapter parallels canon very closely in what happened with "Chuck vs. the Ex." I thought it would be better to put the cutoff in now rather than try to add the entire next episode into the story at this point. To be honest, I still don't even know how many chapters are left until this diverges into all AU, much less the total number of chapters. That's the thing about me: I can write long stories. Unfortunately, good stories are another story (pun intended)._

 _My chapter that goes with "Chuck vs. the Fat Lady" will divert a bit from the original story. Let's face it, there was a lot of visual moments in that story that don't translate well to the written word. And of course, when I mean visual moments, I'm referring to how hot Yvonne looked in her outfits. :-D_

 _I'll try to get the next chapter up before St. Patrick's Day. I plan to actually be conscious that day...I hope. Certainly beats the hell out of where I was at this time last year._

 _Anyway, the parts of the story that come from the show remain the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions, natch. And please leave reviews. Let me know how this story is going. I promise a nice twist in Chapter 19. Trust me; you'll love it. Well, most of it. :-D_

* * *

 _ **Hotel Waldron – Los Angeles, CA  
March 2, 2016  
10:00 PM PST**_

Jill sat in a chair in her hotel room, and the crying wouldn't stop. Two NSA agents were in the room disguised as an L.A. Police officer and an L.A.P.D. psychologist. They tried to question her regarding the death of her boss, Guy LaFleur, but she was in no mood to be interviewed. The team watched on a monitor in an adjoining room. The agent pretending to be a psychologist looked towards the hidden camera they planted in the room and gave a gentle shrug of her shoulders. Sarah exhaled in frustration; they couldn't prevent LaFleur's death and the person who murdered him got away, possibly with the bioweapon. And now they couldn't get the one person who could lead them to the bioweapon to tell them anything.

"Any ideas?" Sarah asked the team.

"We should wait it out a little longer," Casey replied. "Seeing her boss fall to his death was quite a shock to her system. Maybe she'll be in a talking mood she shakes it off. Worst case, we send her in for a full interrogation."

"I don't think we have the time for that," Carina replied. "If this bastard has the bioweapon, he plans to use it. And fast."

"Let me talk to her," Chuck suggested.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Jimmy asked.

"I'm a friendly face. Maybe she'll talk to me before the CIA."

Sarah nodded. "Go ahead." She turned on the microphone so the two agents could hear her in their earpieces. "Give us a few minutes."

The two disguised agents left the room and Chuck entered. Jill looked up and wiped a few tears away with the last of the tissues in the box.

"Hey, are you OK?" Chuck asked gently.

Jill nodded. "It's just…"

Chuck took her hand. "I know. I'm still freaked out, too. Is there anything that would make someone want to kill your boss?"

Jill shook her head. "He was here to give a talk on an antiviral serum for a strain of an influenza virus."

Chuck sat back. "He was? He didn't invent a bioweapon?"

"No, but our company did. They had developed an airborne strain of influenza so deadly it could kill a person within one hour if exposed. A couple of days ago, Guy learned our company secretly sells the influenza bioweapon, and he was going to present our research at the convention. So the company couldn't cover it up anymore."

Jill suddenly stopped and stared at Chuck in disbelief. "Wait, how did you know about the bioweapon?"

Chuck stared towards the hidden camera, realizing he just made a big mistake. He then heard the door open behind him.

"Uh, Jill? There's something you should know."

Jill looked towards the door to see Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy enter. "What…what's going on? Why are they here?"

"We…sort of…work together."

"On the show?"

Sarah shook her head. "Jill, we're covert agents. We work for the government. The TV show is our cover."

"Wait…all of you really are spies? You have to be kidding."

"We're not, Ms. Roberts," Casey replied. "We've been investigating your boss. We thought he was into some shady business. We kept an eye on both of you. But whoever murdered your boss must have made off with the weapon."

"You kept an eye on…" Jill looked at Chuck and put the pieces together. "So, that whole thing tonight…you being depressed and making me feel bad for you…that was all an act?"

Jill got up from her chair and stormed right past the team out of her room. "Jill, wait!" Chuck said as he ran out into the hall but Jill wouldn't slow down. Chuck returned to the room with his entire body slumped.

"Now what?" Carina asked.

"Plan doesn't change," Casey replied. "Roberts has to present the findings. That way the bioweapon becomes useless."

"I don't think she's in much of a mood to stand up in front of a group right now," Chuck said quietly, still upset about Jill's reaction.

"Then let Slade do it."

"Case, I'm a _computer_ scientist, not a scientist," Jimmy replied.

"You have a 160 IQ. You can figure this out better than the rest of us."

"That's the plan we'll go with," Sarah said. "If Chuck can't convince Jill to take the podium, we'll have Jimmy give the presentation. Let's give her a little time to cool off. Then Chuck, do what you can to convince her. Casey and Carina, be ready to get LaFleur's files. Jimmy, hack into the servers at Cole-MacGregor and see what data you can get that way."

The team left Jill's room to head back to the hotel.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 3, 2016  
12:00 AM PST**_

Chuck knocked gently on Sarah's door. She went to answer it.

"Everything OK?" she asked when she saw the despondent look on Chuck's face.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Chuck said quietly as he looked at the ground.

"Why are you sorry?" she asked as she stepped aside to let him in.

"It's my fault we're in this. I tried to reconnect with Jill and then I let it slip what you guys do."

Sarah gave him a disbelieving glance as she sat down and gestured for him to sit next to her. "It's your fault Guy was murdered? It's your fault your ex works for a company trying to sell a bioweapon? Chuck, this is how things happen sometimes. You can't control every last factor or anticipate every last problem. And if you berate yourself over every little mistake, you'll drive yourself and everyone around you crazy. That's what we had to go through with Jimmy the first few months he was on the team. He acted like he was walking on eggshells when he started with us and was borderline suicidal whenever he made the tiniest mistake. Thankfully we straightened him out. How he survived for six years before we met I have no idea."

Now it was Chuck's turn with the disbelieving glance. "Seriously?"

Sarah nodded. "He wasn't used to working with people. He spent so much of his life alone and untrusting of others, it took him a while. But eventually he relaxed and became an important part of the team. I don't think Casey or Carina would disagree with me if I said we're a better team now than we were when Bryce was with us."

"I also think they would say it's because of the person who leads them," Chuck replied with a warm smile.

A smile drew itself across Sarah's face. Not two minutes ago, Chuck was lamenting how he let the team down, and now he was talking about she made the team a success. No matter what the situation, Chuck wanted to help others and not worry about himself. The team may have been better since Bryce left and Sarah took the lead, but how the team had gotten better since meeting Chuck was beyond comprehension. The last six months had been as crazy as her career ever had been, but she wouldn't change a thing.

Except one thing, and she hoped she would eventually get that chance.

"I think Jill's had enough time to cool down," Sarah said. "Let's get Casey, Carina, and Jimmy ready."

Chuck nodded, and both of them stood. They then heard a very loud thud outside of the door.

"What the hell?" Chuck asked in shock.

"SARAH!" Casey yelled from across the hall.

~/^\~

Casey and Carina readied a set of harnesses and climbing gear, anticipating they may have to break into LaFleur's room from the outside, as it was currently sealed off as a crime scene.

"Anything, Jimmy?" Carina asked.

"Nothing so far," Jimmy replied as he typed away at the computer attempting to find any data within Cole-MacGregor Pharmaceutical's servers. "I can only get so deep into their systems, and this assumes they're dumb enough to keep the influenza data on their networks. I'd have better luck breaking into their labs directly."

"You may have to do that," Casey replied. "We need data on this quickly, and I don't want to risk thousands of lives on the off-chance Bartowski can talk his ex into trusting him. Let's hope LaFleur had all of his research in a nice easy-to-find locale."

They heard a clicking noise in the ceiling above them. All three looked up and readied their weapons. Behind Jimmy, an air conditioning vent opened and an object was thrown inside the room.

Jimmy's head snapped around when the object hit the floor. "EVAC!" he screamed and dove on top of the object, which exploded, sending gas into his face. He rolled off of it, completely blinded.

"Get out! Get out!" he yelled, but Casey and Carina didn't listen. Carina ran for the emergency wash and sprayed Jimmy's face with it, while Casey immediately took out an air toxin sensor and scanned the room.

"Don't leave!" Casey said. "Carina, seal the room! That was the influenza bioweapon!"

Carina immediately flipped a set of switches on the wall to seal off the air vents and prevent the toxin from leaving the room. Casey hit another button to seal the door and drop the hazmat curtain outside in the hallway.

"SARAH!" Casey yelled.

~/^\~

Chuck and Sarah opened the door and saw a man getting up from the ground. The man turned and looked at them. The same man who murdered Guy LaFleur.

Sarah whipped her gun out. "Freeze!"

Wolf Den spun and kicked the gun out of Sarah's hands. He then sprinted at them, elbowing Sarah in the face and pushing Chuck to the ground, before sprinting down the hall towards the stairwell.

Sarah got up and retrieved her gun, pulling up Chuck as well. "Get Jill, right now!" she ordered as she sprinted down the hall after Wolf Den. Chuck stared in shock momentarily before turning towards the conference room, scared out of his mind at the hazmat curtain now around it.

"Casey?" Chuck said loudly through the door.

"Chuck, go find Jill!" he replied. We've been hit with the virus!"

Chuck shook off the shock and ran for the elevators.

 _ **Hotel Waldron – Los Angeles, CA  
March 3, 2016  
12:30 AM PST**_

"Jill! Jill, it's me! Please open up!" Chuck shouted as he pounded on the door to Jill's hotel room.

"Go away, Chuck!" Jill shouted from behind the door.

"Look, I know my credibility with you is at an all-time low, but you need to listen to me. Someone released the bioweapon. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy will die in less than an hour!"

Jill opened the door. "This isn't funny anymore, Chuck. You need some serious help."

Jill started to close the door again but Chuck shoved it all the way open. "Jill, please! I know what I did to you was wrong, and if you hate me forever because of what I did, I don't blame you. But please don't condemn three of the best people I've ever met to die because of what I did! I try to help people! That's what I do with Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. All of them, what they do on the show, that's what they really do! They save the world for a living! I don't even know how many times they've saved my life in the last six months, but they've done it every time without fail! And now I need to save them! But I need your help to do it!"

Jill stared at him for a long moment. She still hated him for what he did earlier that night. But Chuck always had that conviction, that sense of responsibility, that made her love him when she dated him at Stanford. And if what he said about his expulsion was really true, that he never stole those tests, then he deserved a second chance. God knows he gave her enough second chances when they were dating and wasn't even that spiteful when he saw her the other day at the hotel.

She went to her desk and grabbed a large case. "Let's go," she said.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 3, 2016  
12:50 AM PST**_

Wolf Den made it out of the building and got into his car. Sarah jumped into her Porsche and took off after him. Wolf Den made it onto the Ventura Freeway, but Sarah was quickly closing the distance. He spun his car around on the busy highway and opened fire at Sarah, who ducked down and began to swerve to avoid being hit. Wolf Den threw the wheel hard to the left to turn back around, but it gave Sarah the needed time to close the distance. She pulled up alongside Wolf Den's car and shot out the left tires. She barely stopped in time as Wolf Den's car careened out of control, falling off of an embankment and rolled over multiple times down the hill.

Sarah immediately stopped her car and made her way down the hill. Wolf Den's car was upside-down but his body was hanging out of the driver's side window. Sarah approached with her gun drawn, but Wolf Den was clearly dead. She reached in and pulled an object out of Wolf Den's coat. It was Wolf Den's ID.

 _What the hell?_ she thought to herself as she looked at the ID of Barry Rommell, a CIA agent.

~/^\~

Chuck and Jill arrived at the conference room, where an NSA hazmat crew was waiting.

"OK, I need a Level A hazmat suit," Jill ordered.

"We don't carry that high of a hazmat suit," the leader of the hazmat team told her. "The CDC is bringing one in. They'll be here in about ten minutes."

"We don't have ten minutes!" Jill huffed in frustration. She opened the case and pulled out a vaccination gun. "OK, I'll go in there without one."

"Jill, no!" Chuck shouted. "It's too dangerous. I'll do it."

"Chuck, whoever goes in there has to make the antidote. That's me."

"Well, is it something you can talk me through."

Jill shrugged. "I guess."

"OK, then I'm going in." Jill didn't look convinced. "Jill…they trust me. Trying to find out about you and Guy was my idea. They put their lives on the line trusting me to do the job, and now I have to come through for them."

Jill stared at him. That conviction she remembered from him at Stanford clearly didn't go away. In fact, it had increased a hundred-fold. "Are you sure?"

Chuck nodded confidently. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"OK." Jill attached a syringe to the vaccination gun. "I'll have to inject you first."

Chuck took a look at the vaccination gun in her hands. His conviction waned quickly. "Oh…oh that's a big needle."

"Ready?" she asked. She then injected him, which Chuck would not list on his favorite activities since meeting Sarah. "OK, that was a modified version of the viral strain. Now your body metabolizes the poison and the antiviral serum is going to be created from your blood."

"Poison? Poison?!" Chuck was incredulous. "I thought I was getting the antidote? You gave me the poison?"

"Yeah," Jill replied in disbelief. "It's the only way to make the antidote. Did you not understand that?"

"Oh, oh yeah!" Chuck tried to regain his dignity…and not very well. "Hey, we're living on the edge. What a rush."

Chuck walked to the door, and the hazmat chief opened it for him. Chuck walked inside and stared in horror. Casey was barely moving, and Carina and Jimmy weren't moving at all.

"Oh, no," Casey barely coughed out. "What are you doing in here?"

"It's a long story, but the headline is I'm our only hope for survival."

Casey coughed profusely. "And here I thought things couldn't get any worse."

"What happened?" Chuck asked in wide-eyed terror, pointing to Carina and Jimmy.

"Canister went off in Jimmy's face. He took the worst of it. Carina probably breathed in too much trying to help him."

"Chuck, in the case there should be a medi-syringe and a multi-dose injector," Jill called out over Chuck's earpiece. "I need you to extract 60 cc's of your own blood and put it through the centrifuge. And then inject one cc of the antiviral serum into Casey, Carina, and Jimmy."

Chuck picked up the medi-syringe and tried to hand it to Casey, who was beginning to wobble more and more. "Casey, here. No, no, no, no. Casey, you have to take the gun. You have to take the gun and…you have to take my blood, OK? So just take my blood."

Chuck shut his eyes and looked away. Casey tried to grab Chuck's arm and aim the needle at it.

Casey got extremely light-headed and started to fall. "Take the gun, Chuck. Take the gun…"

Chuck opened his eyes in time to see Casey fall to the ground. The medi-syringe shattered.

"Oh, God!" Chuck said in complete fear.

"Chuck, what is happening?" Jill asked.

"That's…I need help right now! Casey's fading fast and the gun…the gun shattered."

"That was our only syringe! OK, stay calm. I'm going to find another."

"Jill, please hurry. We're running out of time."

"Chuck, think of something," Casey rasped between coughs. "You're smart. You went to Stanford. Sort of. Dying from catching a cold is not the way I want to go."

Chuck's eyes suddenly lit up. He sat on the ground next to Casey. "Wait, viruses are airborne, right? I mean, you catch them when someone sneezes or coughs. Maybe the antivirals metabolize in saliva."

Casey gave him a weird look. "What are you talking about?"

Chuck grimaced when he looked at Casey. "I can't believe I'm about to do this."

He grabbed the back of Casey's neck and pulled Casey to his lips.

"No! No, no, no, no! I served my country with honor, Bartowski! Please, let me die with dignity!"

Chuck kissed Casey hard, and both of them quickly wished the virus would kill them anyway.

"Chuck!"

He let go of Casey, spitting hard to get the bad taste from his lips, and turned to see Jill in a hazmat suit.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Jill, Jill, hey! I thought that…I thought that maybe the antivirals could be spread by saliva!"

"That's…ridiculous." She shook her head as she prepared the antiviral serum. "No wonder you failed Biochem."

Chuck's eyes widened. He slowly turned to Casey. "From the deepest recesses of my soul, I am very sorry."

Casey growled and fell back on the floor as Jill extracted Chuck's blood, ran it through the centrifuge, and gave the serum to Casey, Carina, and Jimmy.

Sarah ran upstairs to the room where the hazmat team waited in anticipation. The door opened and Chuck and Jill emerged. The whole team started to applaud.

"Way to go, Carmichael!" they yelled as they took Casey, Carina, and Jimmy for observation. Sarah looked on with a big smile on her face. Chuck had come through yet again.

Jill took off her mask. "Chuck, you're amazing!"

"Nah," he said abashedly before his face morphed into a grin. "Well, maybe a little."

Jill smiled, wrapped her arms around Chuck's neck, and kissed him hard. All of the betrayal, all of the bitterness, all of the hatred Chuck felt about his past faded away as Jill and he kissed.

The smile on Sarah's face also faded away.

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
March 3, 2016  
10:00 AM PST**_

Sarah walked down the halls of the hospital to check on Jimmy. The team had accompanied him to the hospital last night to be treated, having gotten the worst of the virus. He had second-degree burns on his face from the exploding canister, but the doctors assured them he would be OK and just needed a day or two of observation. Given how instrumental he was in keeping her in the hospital back when she was poisoned, it was going to be at least two days whether he needed it or not.

"Morning," she said as she entered Jimmy's bedroom.

"Hey, kiddo," Jimmy replied. "How are you feeling?"

"Um, you're the one who got injured. Shouldn't that be my question to you?"

"It's just some burns to my face. That poison couldn't make me any uglier than I was before."

Sarah gave him a light smack upside the head. "Geez, even when I'm taken to the hospital?" Jimmy said with mild irritation.

"Well, I do admit you're a lot better than when you first started with the team."

Jimmy nodded. "I know. I think you gave me a concussion one time doing that."

Sarah fell silent. "Is this about last night?" Jimmy said softly.

"You saw that?" Sarah asked.

Jimmy nodded. "I was blinded from that canister for two hours, and even I saw it."

"The worst part is, Beckman wants us to keep Jill around. She thinks we can figure out who some of Cole-MacGregor Pharmaceutical's customers were. Jill might be able to point us to the data we need. This is a big deal; the person I shot was a rogue CIA agent."

"She could get us into the company. Send us in the right direction."

"Yeah, maybe."

"But…" Jimmy started and gestured about what neither of them wanted to say.

"I know I made the right decision to protect Chuck, but now look at this." Sarah was feeling her emotions boil to the surface. "I let him do this. I trusted him to get the job done. And now…"

"He DID get the job done. He convinced Jill to save Case, Carina, and me. He did great work. But Jill still left him back in school. You date someone for three years and fall in love and then suddenly you don't believe them when they said they didn't steal tests?" Jimmy shook his head. "And sleep with your best friend to boot? Chuck can be too forgiving for his own good, but even this is stretching it."

Sarah exhaled. "It's just…the way those two kissed yesterday…"

"I don't know. I don't know what's going on in Chuck's head, and I assume you don't want me to try to get it out of him." Sarah shook her head. "So just…I don't know. I mean, last night was very 'be the hero and get the girl' for Chuck. Hell, our writers couldn't have come up with a better script."

"You're saying I should just let this play out?"

Jimmy shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you. There's a lot going on right now and we need our leader. But whatever you decide, you know we always have your back."

Sarah smiled at that. She leaned down and gave Jimmy a kiss. "Thanks. Now get better. Quickly."

"Yes, sir," he replied in a mocking respectful tone.

Sarah exited the hospital and went back to the hotel to be there in time for Beckman's conference call.


	18. A Plan Is Hatched

_Hello. I did promise to get the next chapter done by St. Patrick's Day so I just got it in under the wire. Good thing, too, since I have to work tonight. Just part-time work; nothing to get excited about._

 _A lot of people commented in the last chapter that they thought Chuck forgave Jill too easily and should stand up to her. I agree to an extent, but he did have a history with her, and remember I'm writing the story as if we don't know what really happened with Jill yet. Obviously we'd like to see someone kick her ass in, but all I can say is just let the story play out. I guarantee the result of this arc will be better than the show. Hopefully. :-D_

 _And the better news is, I was actually conscious for my birthday and St. Patrick's Day this year, so that's already an improvement over last year. Hopefully one of these interviews I went on this week will turn out to be something. In the meantime, I think people would agree a deep-dish pizza from Gino's East is an adequate replacement for a birthday cake. At least it has less sodium. :-D_

 _Anyway, writer's notes over. As always the parts I get from the show are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. Please leave reviews. And remember, just because you see a lot of show canon it doesn't mean it will stay that way. (cue the ominous music...)_

 _Enjoy!_

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 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 3, 2016  
12:30 PM PST**_

Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Carina gathered around the monitor to listen to General Beckman as she gave the team their next assignment.

"I have the intel on your new mission. Turns out our deceased doctor, Guy LaFleur, obtained a list of CIA code names for the agents he worked with. We have reason to believe this is a list of Fulcrum operatives. This may be our only chance to find the corrupt agents within our ranks."

"Great," Sarah replied. "Where is the list now?"

"Intel thinks it's hidden in Guy's hotel room at the Waldron. We need to get that list before Fulcrum does."

"We'd have to break in," Carina said. "The FBI still has that place sealed off as a crime scene."

"How hard could that be?" Casey said with a shrug. "It's the FBI."

"Get whatever you can from the hotel room and bring it back to base," Beckman ordered. "Chuck, once they have Guy's personal effects, see if you flash on anything. But while they're doing that, make contact with Ms. Roberts. You seem to have made a solid connection with her. Use that to find out anything you can."

"General…um, what if she doesn't know anything?" Chuck asked nervously.

"She may know quite a bit and isn't aware of it. Any little piece of information we didn't have before would be helpful. Get to it, team."

The monitor went blank. Casey and Carina exited to get ready to head to the Waldron.

"Everything OK, Chuck?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, actually things are great," he replied, although it was obvious to Sarah that he looked a little conflicted. "Why do you ask? Is this some spy thing I don't know about? Some psych evaluation?"

"No, more of a…friend thing. I just wanted to make sure that you're OK."

"Yeah, being with Jill is…it's kind of like having my old life back. Back when things were easier. When I wasn't getting expelled, when ex-friends weren't sending me government secrets, when I wasn't going on dangerous missions…"

Chuck saw Sarah's look become a bit despondent. "Not to bash our cover. You guys have helped me so much to get through this. It's just nice to…be with someone who knows the real me."

"Well, from everything I've seen, she seems like a great girl," Sarah replied, praying Chuck couldn't tell she was trying to hide what she was really feeling.

"I should…I should take Jill to lunch. Talk to her…like Beckman wanted."

"OK, we'll call you later."

"Bye," Chuck said, as he walked out of the room.

"Bye," Sarah replied. She watched the door close and stared at it far longer than she wanted to.

 _ **Hotel Waldron – Los Angeles, CA  
March 3, 2016  
1:30 PM PST**_

Sarah and Carina crawled through the ventilation system in the ceiling above LaFleur's room. Time was of the essence as they had to meet Chuck right away to see if he flashed on anything they collected.

"A little slow there?" Carina said in a mocking tone as she waited for Sarah to round a corner.

Sarah exhaled in annoyance. The only thing worse than the image of Chuck kissing Jill last night was trying to hide her feelings about it. And she was crawling through an air duct with the one person she had no chance of hiding her feelings from, no matter how good of a façade she could put up.

"It's work time," she grumbled. "Do we have to talk about this?"

"Hey, I'm not the one going slow here."

Sarah reached the grate and took out a small screwdriver to work on the bolts holding it in place. "Lay off, will you?"

Sarah lifted the grate and pushed it forward. She slid downward and dropped into the room, holding onto the vent so she flipped forward and landed on her feet. A few seconds later, Carina used the same maneuver to enter the room as well.

"It was a good plan," Carina told her. "We got the bioweapon, didn't we? Chuck even saved our lives in the process. No point in getting all emotional about it, even if his ex did decide to play tonsil hockey with him afterwards."

"Enough," Sarah snarled. "I know the plan worked. And I know I signed off on it. I just didn't expect…this."

"OK, then. Let's get this done. And get out of your own head about…'this'. Chuck is really starting to get the hang of what we do here. We need his help if we want to get those names."

"And while you're at it, also get my head out of…this, Walker," Casey said from the surveillance van with zero sympathy for Sarah's plight. "God, where is Slade when I need him?"

Carina raised an eyebrow. "You're actually missing Jimmy being here?"

"He can tolerate all these lady feelings much better than I can."

"Says the person who almost blew our surveillance on Victor Federov because he was trying to get back with his girlfriend?" Sarah spat.

"And still stopped him," Casey countered.

Sarah shook her head in annoyance as she looked around. She grabbed a few items from LaFleur's table while Carina packed his laptop.

"Walker, wait," Casey called from the van. "Check your four. Thought I saw something."

Sarah turned to her right, and Casey saw a wooden box through the camera Sarah was wearing.

"This puzzle box?" Sarah asked.

"It's not on the standard room inventory," Casey replied. Bring that with you."

Sarah grabbed the box and handed it to Carina, who put it in the case with LaFleur's laptop. They then heard a noise outside.

"Let's go," Sarah whispered, quickly moving over to the opening in the vent.

Carina took a quick look for anything else and then went to Sarah. She put LaFleur's laptop case around her shoulder and took a foothold from Sarah. She grabbed the air vent and pulled herself up into the ventilation system. She then reached down to Sarah, who jumped up and grabbed her hand. Carina pulled her up into the vent. Casey switched to the hallway camera outside of Guy's room. He wound the footage back to when he heard the sound.

The sound was a man exiting the elevator and pulling out a gun with a silencer, who proceeded to shoot the two FBI agents guarding the door.

The man fished the room key from one of the agents' pockets and opened the door. Nobody was there. But the man did notice LaFleur's laptop missing. He looked around the room, but nothing else appeared to be out of place.

He got on his phone. "It's gone," he said. "Someone must have gotten to it." He listened momentarily again. "OK, I'll set it up. I'm sure they'll cooperate."

 _ **Jerry's Famous Deli – Studio City, CA  
March 3, 2016  
2:00 PM PST**_

"Really? He did that?"

"I swear; I was right there. And I mean that literally. He took out all of those guys while I was tied to him."

Jill could only stare in amazement at the stories Chuck told her about the missions he had been on with Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. Which she assumed Chuck changed a little bit because they were top secret. She had only seen a few episodes of _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_ , but she could understand why people would like the show. There was so much action but what was even better was hour the four actors got along on the show. And now that she knew those same four people were real agents who worked together, she had to admit the show went up a few points in her book. It was little wonder why Chuck wanted to be with these people. And given what she remembered about Chuck from the past…not to mention what he did to save them yesterday…it wouldn't surprise her to know they liked him, too.

"Well, don't sell yourself short there, Mr. Carmichael," Jill said with a playful lilt. "I imagine if I asked any of them about you, they'd say what a smart and brave person you are."

Chuck looked down abashedly. "Well, I try my best. But I mean…how do I compare to those four? The things they can do? Heck, how do I even compare to you? You're…you cure diseases for a living. You'll probably save millions of lives before you're done."

"I think it's safe to say I'm out of a job once LaFleur's findings go public," Jill lamented. "Even if all of Cole-MacGregor went down, what company would trust me to keep their research secret?"

"Hey," Chuck said confidently, gently cupping Jill's chin in his hand. "You are a brilliant scientist. You can save the world, just like I do these days."

Jill gave him a smile. She was wrong; this wasn't the Chuck of old. This was a newer, more confident Chuck. And that made him even more attractive than he was at Stanford.

"Maybe the CIA can give me a job," she said coquettishly to Chuck. "Think I could be a good spy?"

"Who knows. I wouldn't try to go against you."

"Then you could have three ass-kicking women on the show," Jill demurred, her smile growing even wider.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" Chuck asked, his smile increasing as well. "Sarah and Carina are well-trained agents."

"That's true. Maybe I should set my sights a bit lower. Perhaps start out in the FBI. Or maybe the DEA. They could use a scientist like me, couldn't they? I could be like a brainy Carina Miller for them."

Chuck gave her a look. "And a damn sexy one at that."

She ran her fingers through the back of his head and gently pulled him to her, placing her lips on his…

"Bartowski!" a hiss was heard from behind them.

Chuck turned around and saw Casey with an irate look on his face. He exhaled in frustration. "The man knows how to interrupt a romantic moment."

Jill nodded. "Go ahead. I can wait."

Chuck got up from the table to talk to Casey while Jill checked a message on her smartphone. She watched Chuck and Casey have a short discussion.

"Well, I hate it when Casey is right, but he does have a point," Chuck said as he sat back down. "We shouldn't be seen in public like this. You'd become 'the other woman' and the stalkerazzi would never leave you alone."

Jill's eyes widened. "Oh, God. I never thought of that. I find it so hard to believe that you have to worry about those things now. I don't envy you. You can't date anyone because everybody thinks you're dating Sarah."

"The price I pay for being with the team," Chuck replied with a shrug. "On the good side, he told me that Jimmy was OK, and Sarah and Carina were getting him from the hospital right now. I guess there are a few things to go over in LaFleur's stuff, so we have to head over there. Jimmy's usually my handler. I certainly prefer him over Casey. We have a lot in common. Although he's a bit crazy, like his character is. I mean, I was dropped from a roof and he was able to grab me and save my life."

"I can imagine. He seems like such a riot."

"Oh, you'd be surprised. I mean, he's one of the nicest people I've ever met, but that confident, funny persona Lance McCall has? Jimmy is really the opposite. He's very quiet in real life, incredibly shy. Sarah told me the guy was constantly stressed out in college and when he started on this job. Remember how I got sometimes doing those electrical engineering projects at Stanford? He was ten times as bad."

"I can see that. College can be tough. Neither of us had it easy. And I'm sure the computer science program at Illinois is a bear. They actually invented a lot of the things everybody uses to this day."

Chuck rose from his chair and put some money on the check. "We should get going."

Jill rose from her chair and followed Chuck and Casey out of the restaurant.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 3, 2016  
4:00 PM PST**_

The team gathered in the conference room to go over Guy LaFleur's personal effects. Jimmy sat at his laptop trying to decipher LaFleur's files.

"Nothing," he said in frustration, wincing at the pain he was still feeling from the burns on his face despite the bandages and several layers of analgesic gel. "If he had the list, he didn't put it on here."

"What about that box we found?" Sarah asked.

Carina pulled the box out of the laptop case and placed it on the table. Chuck looked at it and began to flash, seeing images of paintings, a design of the box's outer casing, and a picture of Leonardo da Vinci.

"This is a Venetian Puzzle Box," Chuck said with a smile. "Very popular with Renaissance spies."

Sarah began to examine the box. "It's locked." She started to move the numbered tiles in the puzzle attached to the box.

"Uh uh!" Chuck replied. Sarah stepped back, and Chuck looked at the Roman numeral tiles. He then started to rearrange them. "The running, jumping, shooting people part, that's all you guys. The puzzles? That's me. You see, you'd think it'd be numerals one through twelve in a row, but these boxes use a complicated Fibonacci sequence."

He finished rearranging the numbers and heard a bell ding and the box click.

"Let's see what we got," Chuck said confidently.

He opened the box. Inside the box were several bricks of plastic explosives attached to a timer, which began a thirty-second countdown.

"That's a bomb," Sarah said as her voice rose in fear.

"Oh, my God," Chuck said as his face went ashen.

"Everybody, evac!" Casey ordered.

"Wait! Something's wrong," Jill said. "This doesn't make any sense. Guy wanted to help people, not hurt people. This is a clue. Guy was paranoid about security, came up with obscure passwords. His email password was a piece of Vogon poetry."

"Jill, if it looks like a bomb and ticks like a bomb, then generally it is a bomb!" Sarah said.

"Right here! Right here!" Jill pointed to a series of numbers. _**23 – _:00 – 15/_ – _/15 – 3/_ – P _**_ "We have to figure out the missing numbers and punch them in!"

Chuck stared at the numbers in shock. "I don't recognize the pattern!"

Jimmy stared at the numbers as the clock counted down to five seconds. He quickly punched a series of numbers into the keypad. The clock stopped with one second to go.

Everybody looked at Jimmy in stunned silence. He looked back and forth at everybody. "What?"

"How did…how…" Chuck began, completely flabbergasted. "How in the hell did you figure that out?"

Jimmy pointed to LaFleur's computer. "The guy may have been paranoid about passwords but he wasn't so good about wiping his browser history. He frequented a lot of sports websites. Probably did that when he needed a break from work. Jill, did Guy have a favorite sport?"

"I know he liked basketball a lot," Jill replied.

"Which is a bit weird, given his name sounds like a Canadian hockey player. But those numbers? They're Michael Jordan's stat line for his final game with the Bulls when they beat the Jazz for the title. Played 44 minutes, shot 15 of 35 from the floor, 12 out of 15 from the line, 3 of 7 from three-point range, and had 45 total points. The correct code was 443512745."

Casey shook his head in disbelief. "Thanks for nerding up March Madness for me, Slade," he said in disgust.

"Wait, that still doesn't explain why he put a bomb in there," Carina said.

Chuck studied the contents of the box. "Jimmy, do you have a video probe?"

"Sure," he replied. Jimmy went to get a probe out of one of the cases in the conference room and handed it to Chuck. Chuck inserted it into the box and took a look around.

"Jill was right; this wasn't a bomb. Well, not one that could have hurt anybody. But we needed the right combination to get to these or they would have been destroyed."

He lifted the inside cover, showing the plastic explosives on top were actually fake. Inside was a bottle of alcohol and what appeared to be a speaker.

"OK, this one's on someone else," Jimmy said as he looked at the items in complete confusion.

"Doesn't make sense," Casey said. "What does a bottle of booze and a radio have in common?"

"Not a radio, a music box," Jill replied. "Guy loved music. The bottle must be a clue to a particular song."

"It's Amaretto," Carina said. "It must be an Italian song."

"A drinking song," Jimmy continued. "An Italian opera that contains a drinking song."

Chuck snapped his fingers. " _La Traviata_ has one. It's called _Libiamo ne' lieti calici_. It's a _Brindisi_. A toast song. Alfredo sang it to impress Violetta."

Jill smiled. "Your dad made you play the flute. I remember you telling me that."

"Yeah, let's not bring that up," Chuck said in embarrassment.

"OK, what key was the _Brindisi_ sung in?" Sarah asked.

"Ummm, C major, I think. Dammit, where's a pitch pipe when you need one?"

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Casey sang in a high voice, causing the music box to unlock.

Everybody turned to him in complete astonishment. "Choir boy," he said dismissively, which did not shake off anyone's bewilderment. "What? I wasn't hatched."

Chuck pulled out the drawer under the music box to reveal the final piece.

"Those are opera glasses," Jill said.

Chuck never heard her as he had a flash, seeing more images of Da Vinci, some of his paintings, and some antique technical specs.

"Oh, uh no. They're actually not," Chuck said. "This is a key. A key to a very super-secret lock box." He pulled the key out of the handle of the opera glasses. "The Culper Ring used to use stuff like that to pass along information during the Revolutionary War days."

"Wow. Chuck, that's impressive."

"Yeah, nice going there, Brainiac," Casey replied, considerably less impressed than Jill was. "But before you go getting all full of yourself, if this is the key then where is the lock?"

Chuck grinned and waved the opera glasses. "The question, my dear Casey, is: where's the opera?"

Jill nodded. "I think I know."

The group left the hotel, unaware they were being followed by a man in an electrical maintenance van who had murdered two FBI agents earlier that day.

 _ **Dorothy Chandler Pavilion – Los Angeles Music Center  
March 3, 2016  
6:00 PM PST**_

The team entered the opera hall and began to look around. Sarah had Chuck and Jill go to Guy LaFleur's family box in the balcony while the rest of them looked around to see if anyone had followed them. So far they had found no one. Casey and Carina went to clear out the performers going through rehearsal.

"Guy loved the opera," Jill said as they entered the box.

"Whoah! Not bad!" Chuck was impressed, to say the least. "You really feel like you're on top of the action."

"How do we know what to look for?"

Chuck took out the key. "It should match the end of this key. Like…" Chuck started looking around the carpet and pulled the chairs aside. Jill did likewise.

"Something…something…" his face lit up. "…like this."

He knelt down to what appeared to be a four-holed separation in the floor. He inserted the key, and a square piece of the floor surrounding the lock popped upward. He reached in and pulled out a flash drive.

He stood up. "Bingo," he said in triumph, prompting a huge grin from Jill.

"Let's head back," Sarah said from the main aisle. She turned and spotted several people at the exits, all of whom pointed guns. "GET DOWN!"

Chuck and Jill hit the deck as a foursome of agents opened fire in the theater. Casey and Carina shoved the rest of the performers out the back while Jimmy rushed to the end of the aisle and charged towards the back with guns blazing.

"Get Jill out of here!" he ordered Chuck.

"Let's go!" Jill yelled, pulling at Chuck's arm. "This way!"

The two ran for the emergency exit as Casey and Carina took cover behind the curtains and readied their weapons. Jimmy kept firing away and charging towards the back. It drew the attention of the four gunmen towards him and away from the rest of the team. Sarah stood and shot the two men in the center. Carina took out the agent on the left, while Jimmy emptied his clips at the one closest to him.

Casey bounded down the back steps of the stage and ran in the direction of where Chuck and Jill should have come down from the upper levels. He then felt an elbow nail him across the head. He staggered to the side and dropped his gun.

The man who killed the FBI agents retrieved his gun as Chuck and Jill entered the outer hallway. The man reached out, grabbed Jill, and held her by the neck as he pointed a gun at her head. She screamed.

"No no no!" Chuck shouted as Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy came up behind them.

"Give me the list, Chuck," the man said.

"Don't do it, Chuck," Sarah whispered.

"Chuck, please!" Jill begged.

"Now, Chuck," the man said in a threatening voice. "I'll shoot her."

"OK, OK!" Chuck said quickly. He fumbled in his pocket for the flash drive. He started to pull it out, but it slipped out of his hand and landed at Jimmy's feet.

"Sorry, sorry," Chuck said in shame. "God, this is like that episode you guys had in Milan."

"I got it," Jimmy said in disgust as he reached down and grabbed the flash drive, handing it back to Chuck.

"Jimmy, that was stupid!" Carina hissed.

"No, wait!" Chuck said. "You know what? There's an easy way to end this."

Chuck threw the flash drive back on the ground and stomped it repeatedly with his foot until it was damaged beyond repair.

"There you go. We don't know your agents and you don't know ours," Chuck said. "Mexican standoff. Now let Jill go."

The man cocked his gun. "You seem to forget I still have a weapon on your girlfriend."

Chuck shrugged. "You may have a gun, but I have a Casey."

The man's eyes widened and he turned around…just in time for Casey to head-butt him into the wall, following it up with a brutal hook to put him on the ground. Chuck pulled Jill out of the way as Carina got the gun he took from Casey and aimed it at him. Jimmy flipped the man onto his stomach and put handcuffs on him.

"You idiot, Bartowski!" Casey looked ready to tear Chuck's limbs off. "Now we'll never know the names of those Fulcrum agents! I've got a good mind to haul your ass in on charges of treason!"

"Yeah, and I'm pissed off, too!" Jimmy growled. "You know how much music was on that flash drive? It took me hours to get it off my old laptop and get it ready to transfer to my new laptop!"

Sarah, Casey, and Carina were stunned silent. Chuck had a big grin on his face.

"You mean…" Sarah began.

Chuck took the flash drive Jimmy palmed and held it up with a smile. "I dropped it at his feet on purpose. I'm just glad he figured it out."

Carina nodded and smiled. "Jen and Jill pulled the same trick on the show with that art thief at the museum in Milan."

"That's right." Chuck handed the flash drive to Sarah. "And now we can find out who the bad guys are."

"Chuck that's…" Jill was beyond impressed. "You were amazing. Again!"

That gave Chuck a big smile. Casey and Jimmy pulled the Fulcrum agent up and took him away, led out of the theater by Sarah and Carina. Sarah took a look back to see Chuck and Jill kissing passionately. She turned forward again, completely deflated.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 3, 2016  
8:00 PM PST**_

Jimmy sat at his computer running through the encryption programs available to him to break the cipher on Dr. LaFleur's list. After the NSA processed the Fulcrum agent who murdered the two FBI agents and took Jill hostage, everybody returned to go over the data they found.

"Well done, team," Beckman said over videoconference. "We'll now be able to discover the identity of every Fulcrum agent with whom Guy was in contact. You did excellent work."

"I think Chuck deserves most of the credit for today," Sarah said, although she felt like complete hell at seeing Chuck and Jill kissing.

"Be sure to thank the asset for his service. By the way, where is Chuck?"

"My guess would be rounding second base," Casey replied with considerable snark, which drew an evil glare from Sarah.

~/^\~

Chuck and Jill went into Chuck's room in permanent lip-lock. She ripped open his shirt and put it on the bed.

"Wait, wait, wait," he said as Jill was about to pounce. "I can't…I can't do this."

"What?" Jill said. She then looked at what Chuck was staring at: the webcam on top of his computer. "Don't tell me…"

"I am that important, apparently," Chuck replied in defeat. "They have me under constant surveillance."

"Well, I have some spy moves of my own," Jill purred. She grinned and pulled off her shirt, tossing it casually over the webcam and blocking its view. "Let's get our weekend started."

Jill went to the bed and fell on top of Chuck, kissing him hard.

~/^\~

"Here we go," Jimmy said as he switched the image of his computer to the large monitor. "The computer found the right decryption key."

Everybody turned to the screen to see a list of agents flash by. Every now and then, the computer would beep and an image would stop on a particular agent, revealing them to be Fulcrum. The team took notes to prepare for Beckman. Of the hundreds of agents they saw, 5% of them were Fulcrum agents.

They then paused the computer and stared in absolute shock.

They immediately grabbed their weapons and bounded out of the hotel, tearing down Interstate 5 at over 100 MPH. They barged into Chuck's apartment and ran for his bedroom and found nobody there.

Chuck was already gone with Jill, apparently unaware she was a Fulcrum agent.


	19. The Nerd In Me

_Hello everybody. It's weird how this works. I know I took four weeks to get you a 4,000 word chapter previously, but this one is over 10,000 words and I did it in less than two weeks. This was the chapter I wanted to get to in the Jill arc. Rest assured, this is very off-canon. Hopefully you'll like it. I also wanted to get into the heads of the characters in this one to see where they were at. I also tried to add some interaction between characters that really haven't interacted yet. I even managed to get Ellie involved in this chapter. When you see that, you should easily recognize the conversation._

 _As always, the parts that are show canon are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And again, please leave reviews. Let me know what you like or dislike (I know at least one thing you'll dislike) and let me know how the story is going for you._

 _The next chapters start to go AU but we are heading towards the end of season 2 quickly. And we get a couple of other people involved in the story, one of whom has spent most of their time as a side character._

 _ **NOTE:** A couple of F-bombs in there, but they are definitely for comedic value. You'll see. :-D_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Echo** ** _Park – Los Angeles, CA_  
March 3, 2016  
8:30 PM PST**_

Chuck packed the last of his clothes into the small bag he planned to take with him as Jill and he got ready to drive up the coast to an out-of-the-way resort a couple of hours away. Or perhaps only an hour, if Jill's claims about her driving prowess were true. He looked towards his desk and retrieved his smartphone. He searched for a few other items before putting everything else in a travel case. Despite Jill's desire to not wait until they got to the resort to get the weekend going, he convinced her they may not be able to check in if they got there too late.

"Ready?" Jill asked him.

Chuck nodded. "Let's go."

The two exited Chuck's apartment, Jill being grateful she found Chuck's watch and threw it in the garbage disposal. The remote location of the resort also meant Chuck's smartphone would be useless, especially given the portable signal jammer in her purse that Fulcrum provided her for the hotel.

~/^\~

Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy looked around the apartment for any clue as to where Chuck and Jill went.

"Check his computer, check his bedroom," Sarah ordered. "We need a lead and we need it now."

"This is not good," Carina said.

"What?"

Carina reached into the garbage disposal and pulled out Chuck's watch, holding it up for everyone to see. "Guess what Jill made sure Chuck didn't have with him?"

"Do whatever you can, Jimmy. Use satcomm, ping his mobile, anything. Find him."

Jimmy typed feverishly at his laptop when Sarah's phone beeped. "Yes, General?" she said to Beckman, putting her on speaker and already dreading what the general would say.

"Jill Roberts is Fulcrum?" Beckman was mad enough to order a missile strike on Echo Park. "And she has Chuck? How is that possible?"

"The LaFleur list contained a code name our computer translated to one Jill Roberts," Casey explained. "By the time we saw it, they were already gone."

"We found his watch in the apartment," Carina added.

"Find him," Beckman ordered rather vociferously. "I don't care how. Just do it."

Beckman hung up. "Tell me you have him, Jimmy," Sarah said, her voice shading quickly towards desperation.

"Maybe," he replied. "The last ping I got from his mobile was fifteen minutes ago somewhere on the PCH. I'm trying to get a better location and searching the area for anybody who checked in or bought gas around there."

"It's not going to matter," Casey said. "Fulcrum's going to try and work him over. He won't last an hour."

"No, you're wrong," Sarah replied, not ready to believe that. "They don't know Chuck's the Intersect and they don't know we found out Jill is one of them. They think they have plenty of time."

"Well, if it ain't torture, what are they doing to him?"

"Got him!" Jimmy exclaimed. "I think you were right, Sarah. Jill wouldn't have let Chuck put a reservation in his name if Fulcrum knew who they had. They're at a small resort up the coast near Monterey. They'll have to get there by ten if they want to check in tonight."

"Let's go," Sarah said. The four exited the apartment.

 _ **La Cansada Resort – Monterey, CA  
March 3, 2016  
10:00 PM PST**_

Chuck carried the bags into their room. He turned around and was on the receiving end of a passionate kiss from Jill.

"Mmmm," Jill purred. "I'm going to take a quick shower." She gave him another sensual kiss. "Back in a few."

Jill sauntered towards the bathroom, slinging her robe and a bag over her shoulder, making sure Chuck got a look at her eye-catching frame. He went about putting their clothes away but accidentally knocked Jill's mobile phone to the ground with one of the bags. He picked it up and glanced casually at the screen.

 _Have you heard from Uncle Tobias? – Mom_

Chuck began to flash, seeing archaic images of a swimmer and a re-sequencing of the message he saw.

 _Meet Leader – Urgent_

"No, no, no, no," Chuck said in fear. "Tell me this isn't happening."

He turned towards the bathroom but still heard the shower running. He quickly went to his bag and opened up a side compartment. He pulled out the Rolex…which he packed when he couldn't find his other watch…and hit two of the buttons on it. He then went to Jill's laptop case and opened it carefully. Inside was a document with a list of names. He came across the name Sandstorm. He began to flash again, seeing a picture of a desert at sunset and the file on Jill, complete with her picture.

Chuck sank down on the bed in defeat. Inwardly, he was cursing himself. Cursing himself worse than when he returned from Stanford after being expelled and after he tried to reconnect with Jill a few months later. He never should have let this happen. He should have known better.

"Jill, I'm going to get some ice and then I want to see if the lobby has some aspirin," he called out.

"What?" Jill replied over the noise from the shower.

"Be right back," Chuck said, quickly exiting the room.

Chuck ran down to the lobby, checking his phone to see if he could get decent reception. He was starting to wish he drove instead of Jill. He gave some thought to running back to the room and grabbing her car keys, but he didn't know how she would react to that.

He got around a corner when two sets of hands grabbed him and threw him into a cabana.

"You stupid, idiotic moron!" Casey yelled, breathing enough fire to make a dragon whimper.

Chuck turned to see the entire team there. "Guys, guys, I'm sorry," Chuck replied quickly. "There's something you need to know…"

"Jill's a spy," everybody said at the same time.

"You know?" Chuck couldn't believe it.

"Her name was on that list we took from Guy LaFleur," Carina said. "Fulcrum probably recruited her while she was still in college, much in the same way they recruited Sarah and me into the Agency. They use leadership seminars to look for possible agents."

Chuck threw his hands up in surrender. "Who in my life ISN'T a spy? My sister? My best friend? Should I just start asking people that when I first meet them? "Hi, I'd like the extra value meal, and while we're on the topic, do you covertly work for a government espionage faction?""

Chuck's collapsed onto a chair and his head dropped into his hands. "It's…I…" He gripped his head tightly. "I thought I had lost that watch, so I packed the Rolex. I should have…"

"Yeah, we found it in the trash," Jimmy replied softly, putting his hand on Chuck's shoulder. "But you activated the Rolex. Once you did, finding you was easy. You probably saved us an hour at the minimum. That may very well have made the difference."

Chuck continued to look at the ground. The team stayed silent, patiently waiting for Chuck to continue. Given how stressful the past several days had been for him…having discovered most of his adult life had been a lie…they could certainly sympathize with how much he was hurting right now.

"They…" Chuck began softly. "There was a message on Jill's phone that I also flashed on. She's supposed to meet someone named Leader."

That got everyone's attention. Sarah knelt down so she was at eye level with Chuck. "Chuck, I'm sorry. I can't even imagine how much hurt you're going through right now. But this may be the break we're looking for in getting to Fulcrum, and you got it for us. We need you to keep after it. We need you to go back to Jill. She may make contact with Leader. Find out whatever you can."

Chuck stared at her in horror. "Are you insane? Jill is Fulcrum. Fulcrum is looking for the Intersect. And the Intersect just happens to be ME!"

"But she doesn't know that, Chuck," Carina said. "Jill doesn't know who you are, and neither she nor Fulcrum has a clue that we know about them. We have the advantage now. You got us this far; you can get us the rest of the way."

"And we're right here to back you up," Jimmy added as he pulled a tray next to Chuck. "Put this bug on the peephole on the door, and she'll never know it's there. Then put this adapter into the USB drive on her computer and it will transfer all of her files to us."

He then took a bottle of wine and two glasses from Casey. "A little alcohol might soften her up." He also gave Chuck what looked like breath spray. "And in case of emergency, knocks out anybody you spray for fifteen minutes."

"I know this is a lot, Chuck," Sarah said, putting a hand on his arm. "If you don't think you're up for it…"

Chuck slowly stood. The look in his eyes changed from of defeat and fear to one of anger and determination. "I'll do it. Jill betrayed me twice. You bet I'll do it."

Chuck grabbed the two bugs and the spray and placed them in his pocket. He then took the bottle of wine and the glasses and headed back to his room.

"What took you so long?" Jill asked as Chuck opened the door and entered.

Chuck took a moment to steel himself. "I was just thinking that if we were going to be in such a beautiful setting, we might as well go all out." He held up the bottle of wine and the glasses.

"I like the way you think, Mr. Carmichael," Jill replied with a libidinous gaze towards him.

"Would you do the honors?"

"Love to," Jill replied. She took the bottle and glasses and went to the table in the room, grabbing a corkscrew and opening the bottle. While she did that, Chuck slipped the bug onto the peephole of the door. He then took a few steps to his right where Jill's laptop was. He slid his hand inside and felt for the USB port. He placed the computer bug Jimmy gave him into the port. Chuck carefully zipped the side of the laptop case closed so Jill couldn't see any lights coming from the hard drive.

~/^\~

"OK, up and running," Casey said, the team having retreated to a room two cabanas away from Chuck and Jill. "The surveillance bug is right where it should be."

"Same here," Jimmy replied as he sat as his laptop and accessed Jill's hard drive using the computer bug Chuck implanted.

" _To us," Jill said, holding up her wine glass._

" _To us," Chuck replied, clinking glasses with her._

 _Both of them took a drink, and Jill put her glass on the table and Chuck followed suit. Jill wrapped her arms around Chuck and started to kiss him._

"Sarah, let's go get some food," Carina told her. "The boys will be in for a long night."

Sarah gave her an evil look. "I can handle this."

Casey continued to look at the monitor as Jimmy came up behind him. They watched Jill step back with a big smile, untie her robe, and let it fall to the ground. She was wearing nothing underneath and stepped forward again to Chuck to remove his clothes.

Jimmy quickly hit the power button on the monitor so Sarah couldn't see what Chuck and Jill were doing. "Now you may go."

Sarah looked ready to go ballistic at both Carina and Jimmy. But both of them knew seeing Chuck like this was killing her inside, and Sarah knew they wouldn't hesitate to physically remove her from the room to protect her.

She turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Carina followed her out, and Jimmy turned the monitor back on so Casey and he could keep an eye out for trouble.

"If we get out of this, it'll be a damn miracle," Jimmy muttered in frustration, slumping into his chair again to go over the files he was receiving from Jill's laptop.

"Bartowski can handle himself," Casey replied. "Anger's a good motivating factor. So is revenge. He's learned a lot. Even I'm impressed with what he's done."

"That's not what I'm talking about."

Casey glanced back at Jimmy. "Do I look like I'm in a mood to discuss Walker or how she can't stand seeing Chuck put his cable into Roberts' USB port?"

Jimmy let a tiny chortle loose. "And how did you feel when you thought Ilsa was going to marry Victor Federov?"

Casey glanced at the monitor. Chuck and Jill were still rolling around in the bed. "Point taken." He sat back in his chair and took a sip of water from a bottle in the room. "Things were rough around here when Larkin ditched her. Now we know why he left her, obviously, but those few months before Graham put you on the team were pretty bad. Carina and I had to stay on her case night and day. And you being afraid of your own goddamn shadow when you first joined us didn't help the situation one bit. Good thing it worked out in the end. No romantic problems, and you follow her orders better than Bryce ever did."

Jimmy nodded in agreement. He still found it hard to believe he made it this far. He spent his whole life not knowing how to trust people, how to deal with people relying on him, and having people really care about him. He never got that in his youth, not even from his family. He only became a spy because it was a better alternative to life in prison with people trying to end his existence on a regular basis. Not a day went by where he didn't wish they had succeeded. He even tried to kill himself several times. But just as Casey and Carina straightened Sarah out after Bryce left, Sarah straightened him out. Three years ago, he was a lone wolf spy tearing through missions and not caring if he lived to see the morning. Today, he was one of the best agents the government had, worked with people even more talented than him, was a well-liked action-comedy star, and even made the top ten of People Magazine's _Sexiest Men Alive_ last year…although in fairness, both Sarah and Carina had been on the _50 Most Beautiful People_ list twice and the team was named _Hottest TV Cast_ during the Bryce days. And more than any of that, he now had a real family. The one he made with Sarah, Casey, and Carina.

But that family needed a lot of damage control right now, not even counting putting Chuck and Sarah back together as far as the public was concerned. And he wasn't sure if that was possible.

"Yeah, that did work out," Jimmy said softly. "But that was easy compared to what it'll take to fix this."

"Nothing we can do about it now," Casey said. "One problem at a time."

They sat back and kept an eye on the situation.

~/^\~

Sarah flopped into a chair in the other room and watched Carina order room service for everyone.

"Go ahead," Sarah said tiredly as Carina hung up the phone.

"What?" she replied.

"You have a big 'I told you so' in there just waiting to come out. Let me have it."

Carina walked over to Sarah, sat on the arm of the chair, and pulled her best friend in for a hug.

"Bitch," Sarah exhaled, feeling a few tears form as she put her arms around Carina. "You get the green light to gloat and you're not going to take it?"

Carina shrugged and smiled. "That'd be like throwing a three-legged puppy out into a rainstorm. Even I'm not that cruel."

"I shouldn't be letting this bother me. Jimmy was right; I have to be a leader. Now more than ever because of the risks we're taking with Chuck…"

"You're a leader, not a robot," Carina replied sharply. "And we do need you. But we need the Sarah we've come to know and love. Not the ice-hearted bitch you used to be and certainly not this weepy insecure thing that I really hope you're not turning into."

Carina knelt down next to Sarah. "If someone did half the things to me that skanky whore has done to Chuck, I wouldn't want to get within a hundred miles of them. Yet Chuck is still helping us take down Fulcrum. And that's because you asked him to do it. Sure, he wants revenge, but he is as loyal to you as the rest of us. Which means not a damn thing going on over there means anything. If it did…then we were wrong about how good of a person he was the whole time. And I don't think we were."

Sarah stared straight forward for a moment. She then nodded slowly. "You're right."

"I always am," Carina replied in a flippant tone.

Sarah turned towards her and gave a low growl, making Carina break up in laughter.

 _ **Spanish Bay – Monterey, CA  
March 4, 2016  
9:00 AM PST**_

Chuck and Jill walked down the shoreline. It still didn't feel real to him that Jill worked for Fulcrum. He knew her…was even in love with her…for three years. And somewhere during that time, she became an enemy of the government. He didn't know what made him feel worse: that Jill betrayed her country or that their relationship was a total lie.

"Remember that Spring Break in Acapulco?" Jill asked him. "That was such a wonderful trip. We walked along the beach just like this and watched the sun come up."

"Yeah, it…it was beautiful," Chuck replied nervously.

"Are you OK?"

"Me? Sure. I'm…I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Jill laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "I remember this now. You'd stand there, start getting all nervous, talk endlessly, and then there was only one thing I could do to stop you."

She put her lips on his and kissed him hard. Chuck reciprocated for a few seconds.

He then pulled his face away from her. "I can't. I can't do this anymore."

"Neither can I." Jill stepped back and pointed a gun at Chuck. "I'm sorry."

Chuck shook his head in grief. "I didn't want to believe it. I really didn't want to. But I knew this was coming."

"What are you talking about?"

"I knew you were a Fulcrum agent."

Jill was astonished. "How did you know?"

"When we were at lunch yesterday, something felt off. I mean, you knew Carina worked for the DEA. But I thought you just made a lucky guess, so I asked Casey about it. He told me to test you. Which you failed. I mean, how could you know Jimmy studied computer science at Illinois when the rest of the world thinks he was a theater major at Northwestern?

"And then…I just put everything together. How you led me down the stairs from the balcony just in time to be taken hostage, how you wanted to get me away from everybody by going to a place where my mobile phone wouldn't work…"

Chuck reached into his back pocket and pulled out his watch, which showed two blinking lights. "And you threw this in the garbage."

Jill stared in shock. "Chuck…"

"Why?" Chuck's grief quickly switched to fury. "Why did you do this?"

Jill shook her head sadly. "It started at Stanford. They sponsored a leadership seminar. After school, whatever job we wanted, they got us. They made our dreams come true."

"And you couldn't get out?"

"When someone controls every part of your life, Chuck, you have to do what they say. After a while, I found myself doing things I never thought I would have done, but then it was too late."

"Too late? Too late for what?"

"Chuck, I'm supposed to bring you to my Fulcrum handler one hundred yards up the shore. If I don't do it, they'll eliminate both of us."

Chuck looked in the direction where the Fulcrum operative would be.

"Fulcrum already knows about Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy," Jill continued. "They've known for several months they're really government agents. But they need to know why they're protecting you. What makes you so special."

"Nothing! There's nothing special about me!"

"They'll decide that. Let's go, OK? I promise I won't let them hurt you."

"Given how many times I've come close to death recently, you'll have to forgive me if I don't believe you!"

"Chuck, think about it. Sarah and her team are at least an hour away. And my handler has two dozen people here to help him. You don't have any other choice. Please don't make this harder."

Chuck turned away from Jill and looked up the shoreline. He could see a group of agents being led by a large bald man wearing a leather jacket and black denim jeans. Chuck didn't need to flash to know this was the person Jill's message referred to as Leader.

"I do know one thing that you don't," Chuck said with his back still turned. He then heard what sounded like motorcycle engines off in the distance.

"What's that?"

"My team is already here."

Chuck whirled around and nailed Jill with the knockout spray. She fell to the ground and Chuck sprinted down the beach away from Leader and his men. Behind him, Sarah and Casey roared over a dune on a pair of four-wheeler ATVs. Both of them opened fire with automatic weapons on Leader and his agents. In front of Chuck, the rest of Leader's troops ran towards him. A dune buggy flew through the air just in front of Chuck and landed to his left just before hitting the waterline. It did a hard 180 and turned back to where Chuck was.

"GET IN!" Jimmy roared as Carina opened fire at the oncoming agents. Chuck jumped into the back of the dune buggy and Jimmy took off down the beach in the direction of Sarah and Casey.

"Uh, you're taking us TOWARDS Leader, Jimmy!" Chuck yelled over the noise of the engine. "Is that a wise idea?"

Carina looked behind her to see a pair of vehicles heading their way. "It is now!" she replied as she continued to fire behind them.

~/^\~

Sarah and Casey kicked their ATVs up to maximum speed and drove right at Leader's team. They ducked down as the group fired at them. Sarah and Casey ran through the entire group, running over several of them who were too slow to get out of their way. They spun around and went after the group again.

~/^\~

The two vehicles chasing Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy closed the distance. One of the passengers leaned out of the vehicle with a Saiga-12 automatic shotgun. He aimed at the buggy's tires, nailing the rear tire on the right side. The force of the exploding tire launched the buggy into the air and flipped it over, spinning through the air twice before landing on its left side in the sand.

Carina quickly undid her seatbelt and climbed out of the vehicle, taking Chuck's hand as he climbed out of the back seat. They quickly went to the other side of the buggy and pushed the roof hard, flipping it back upright to allow Jimmy to get out.

"Are you OK?" Chuck asked as he gently pulled Jimmy out of the dune buggy.

"Yeah, great," Jimmy gritted through the extreme pain. "Feel like a hundred dollars."

Carina looked towards the water. "This way!"

"Come on, Chevy," Chuck said, pulling on Jimmy's arm, as they followed Carina down a pier, the two agents continuing to fire away at their Fulcrum foes. They hopped into a speedboat anchored at the end of the pier. Carina powered up the engine while Chuck and Jimmy unhooked the lines. Carina gave it full throttle, and the boat took off, Chuck and Jimmy almost getting knocked off their feet.

~/^\~

Sarah and Casey charged at the group again. Only this time Leader pulled out a pair of shotguns. He handed one to a lackey and the two opened fire. Sarah and Casey had to turn hard to avoid being obliterated, but the sharp turns sent their ATVs on their sides. Leader's men quickly surrounded Sarah. Casey's leg was trapped under his ATV, making him defenseless as most of the agents chasing Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy arrived and surrounded him.

"Don't move," Leader said contemptuously to Casey. "Not that you can, anyway."

~/^\~

Carina continued to drive the boat further out into the bay. Another speedboat was giving chase.

"Pedal to the metal, Carina," Jimmy said as he rummaged through the boat looking at its contents.

"Why does this feel so weird?" Carina asked.

"You're not wearing a ridiculously small bikini right now."

"Oh, that's what it was. Thanks."

The enemy boat was starting to close the distance. "Carina, hard 180," Jimmy ordered. "Hang on, Chuck."

Chuck and Jimmy grabbed a hold of the railings as Carina threw the boat hard to port. They turned to the opposite direction and started heading towards the other boat.

"Uh, any reason why we're going right at them?" Chuck asked apprehensively.

"Here's why," Jimmy replied. He took out his Glock G17s and opened fire at the other boat as they passed it. Two of the agents were hit but three remained.

"They're coming this way," Carina said. "They're leaking gasoline. You must have gotten the engine block. Maybe we can outlast them."

Jimmy looked towards the starboard side. "I have a better idea." He pulled Carina away and took over the wheel, turning the boat 90 degrees to starboard.

Jimmy checked to make sure the enemy boat was directly behind them. He then gunned the engine hard and headed towards a ramp set up in the bay.

"You know those stupid, crazy things I do sometimes?" Jimmy asked.

"Uh huh," both Chuck and Carina said anxiously.

"This time, you get to do it with me!"

The boat hit the ramp and flew fifty yards through the air, landing back in the water with a hard splash. Chuck steadied himself after a long, girlish scream and lunged for the wheel, throwing it hard to starboard and killing the engine.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Carina asked.

"You said it yourself: they're leaking gas," Chuck replied. "Jimmy, remember the boat scene in _From Russia With Love_?"

"Yeah?" Jimmy replied.

Chuck grabbed the flare gun under the wheel and tossed it to Jimmy as the enemy boat hit the ramp. It flew through the air. Jimmy aimed and fired the flare gun at the leaking motor, causing the boat to explode. Carina powered up the engine and got them away from the fiery debris.

Jimmy looked back towards the ramp and the wrecked boat. "Aaah, hell," he muttered in disgust.

"What's wrong?" Chuck asked.

"We jumped the shark."

"Oh, shut up."

"No, we really jumped the shark. We jumped an actual…do you not see the shark over there?"

Chuck and Carina turned towards the ramp to see the outline of an underwater cage. They then saw the dorsal fin of a shark emerge from the water.

"What the hell is a shark doing in Monterey?" Chuck asked in utter bewilderment.

"Maybe they're filming the next _Sharknado_ movie around here," Carina replied.

"What the hell is a real shark doing in a _Sharknado_ movie?"

Jimmy threw his hands up. "This time it's personal?"

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 4, 2016  
2:30 PM PST**_

Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy entered the conference room and went right to work. Chuck plugged in his mobile phone to recharge the battery while Carina pulled up satellite imaging to see if she could locate where Jill and Leader may have taken Sarah and Casey. Jimmy tried their mobile phones.

"Nothing," he said in barely-contained fury. "Carina, tell me you have something."

"Nothing on satcomm," Carina replied. "They knew we'd try to look for them that way. They're not stupid."

"They had at least a thirty-minute lead on us. They could have loaded them on a plane and had them halfway across the country by now."

"No, they're going to contact us," Chuck said with considerable self-assuredness. "Jill said they want me specifically. I think they would trade Sarah and Casey for me. We should take the deal."

"Absolutely not!" Carina was livid. "You are not sacrificing yourself for Sarah and John! You are the Intersect. You're more important than all of us put together."

"She's right, Chuck," Jimmy said. "Fulcrum won't give up Sarah and Case. Once they had you, they'd kill all of us in a heartbeat. I don't want to lose those two, but I also don't want to face them if we lost you."

"I can't just sit here and let them die!" Chuck exclaimed.

"You're the government's most important asset. You have all of our secrets in your head. We're expendable and you're not. We're responsible for you; you're not responsible for us."

"I am responsible! All of you trusted me! All of you put your lives on the line over and over for me! And the way you've helped me through this…you're…you're the best friends I've ever had. I…I just can't hide and pray everything works out, OK? After all this time, I can't think of any of you as expendable. Not for one second!"

Chuck went up to Carina and Jimmy and gripped both of their arms. "You keep saying I can do this. Please let me finish. Please let me bring them back. Trust me now, just like I trust all of you."

Chuck's mobile phone began to ring. He looked at the caller ID. "It's them."

Jimmy quickly went to the phone and plugged it into the computer. "Go ahead," he told Chuck.

Chuck hit the answer button. "Hello?"

"It's me," Jill said in a subdued voice. "Things haven't changed. Fulcrum still wants to know about you. Please, Chuck. I know you don't want anything to happen to your team, so please meet with us. By yourself, at 5PM. We'll pick you up on the corner of 3rd and Figueroa. Once we have you, Fulcrum promises to let Sarah and Casey go."

Chuck looked down at the ground. "I'll be there," he replied quietly. He disconnected with Jill and slumped back into the chair.

"Shit," Jimmy cursed. "She disabled her phone, so we lost the signal. By the time we got anybody there, they'd be long gone."

"Chuck, you know what will happen," Carina said. "This is such a setup, it's ridiculous."

Chuck looked up again and stared at Carina for a moment. He then looked down at his mobile phone before looking up again.

"Jimmy, ever play _Call of Duty_?"

 _ **Unknown Location  
March 4, 2016  
3:30 PM PST**_

Sarah and Casey found themselves locked in a room somewhere in Los Angeles, based on the noises they heard outside. However, since Leader and his team threw them into the back of a windowless van and took a very circuitous route from Monterey, there wasn't any way of knowing an exact location. And since their mobile phones were destroyed two hours ago, there was no way for them to be traced.

The door opened and Jill entered, followed by two of Leader's men, who trained automatic weapons on Sarah and Casey to make sure they didn't try anything stupid.

"We'll be leaving in a few minutes," Jill told them. "Please don't bother with a show of bravado or try to convince Chuck to give you two up. You know him as well as I do now. He'll do anything for anyone that likes him."

"I can't believe you would sink so low," Sarah said, incensed beyond belief. "You would do all of this to someone who actually loved you."

Jill shrugged. "Fulcrum wants Chuck, and I'm the best person to capture him. It's as simple as that. I'm doing my job."

"Then you do your job well, you treasonous whore."

A blaze of fury ran through Jill, and she slapped Sarah hard. Casey stepped forward to attack her, but the two men jamming their weapons into his temples stopped him.

"Thank you for proving me right," Sarah growled at Jill.

"And how many marks did you screw during the night and kill by morning? Don't you dare get sanctimonious with me. You manipulate and control him just like any other woman does. And you have the nerve to call me a whore?"

Jill took her gun and shoved it under Sarah's chin. "You know, I had asked Leader to make your deaths quick and extend the same courtesy to Carina and Jimmy. But since you want to act all high-and-mighty, I'm going to make sure Chuck watches as each and every one of you is killed. And it will be slow and painful."

Jill turned and exited the room. The two bodyguards stayed inside and kept their weapons trained on Sarah and Casey.

 _ **Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA  
March 4, 2016  
4:30 PM PST**_

Chuck sat in a chair in the middle of the conference room. He couldn't shake the possibility he might be dead in the next hour…and so could everyone else. He tried his best to help them with Guy LaFleur and finding the bioweapon. He tried to help them locate the list of Fulcrum agents. But all of it may have been for nothing.

The door suddenly burst open. Chuck stepped back in shock to see Jill, Leader, and several of his squad enter the hotel room.

"Surprise, Chuck," Leader said in a gravelly voice. He turned to an agent outside. "Find the other two," he ordered.

"I…I take it I don't need to drive to 3rd and Figueroa now?" Chuck asked.

Leader shook his head. "No, that's OK. Why waste the gas. Even Fulcrum likes a green planet."

"But you have to stick to your deal. I want to see Sarah and Casey and I want to see them right now."

"Chuck, please," Jill replied. "Don't make this any harder."

Chuck then pulled out a flash drive. "Here's what makes me special. All of the data I possess is on this flash drive. A whole lot of CIA and NSA data."

He then reached down and turned on the shredder at his feet. He held the flash drive over the blades. "You can shoot me, but then I would just drop this. So bring Sarah and Casey in here right now."

Leader shrugged and turned around. He nodded to one of the squad members, who stepped outside. The agent led Sarah and Casey into the room. The other agent pulled out two chairs, and Sarah and Casey sat down with their backs to each other.

"There you go," Leader said. "Now give us the flash drive."

"A deal's a deal."

Chuck stepped forward but stumbled. The flash drive fell into the shredder.

"Oopsie," he said, a little wide-eyed.

"You…" Jill growled furiously, raising her gun at Chuck.

"Wait!" Leader said. "We were expecting him to pull a stunt like this." He turned to Chuck. "Thankfully, Jill was smart enough to bug your phone. We need you, but we also needed your base of operations. We figured you and Miller and Slade would return to it, so we just had to wait until you did."

Leader went to the main computer and tried to boot it up. "What's the password, Chuck?"

Chuck remained silent. Jill put a gun to Sarah's head. "Want to watch me kill her?" Jill asked.

"Don't tell them, Chuck," Casey hissed.

Chuck exhaled in defeat. "Password is CPE1704TKS."

"Thank you," Leader said, typing in the correct password.

Jill pointed her gun at Chuck and took two sets of handcuffs from the desk. "Now handcuff your partners," she ordered.

Chuck took the handcuffs, putting one set on Casey first. He then went behind Sarah and put the other set of handcuffs on her.

"Chuck, do whatever you can to run away," Sarah whispered in his ear. "Please just leave. Don't stay here for us."

Chuck glanced over at Jill, who was waiting for him to finish. He then dropped something in Sarah's hand.

"Get ready to unleash the Casey," Chuck whispered.

"I found the files I need," Leader said. He began to download the files onto a flash drive.

"Fine, you win," Chuck said. "You beat us. You were smart enough to bug my smartphone. The only way we had any sort of a shot is if I had found it before you arrived."

He then turned back to Jill and Leader and smiled broadly. "Oh, wait a minute. I forgot. I did find it."

Leader and Jill looked on in confusion. "You see, we knew about you. However, you knew we knew about you, until we knew that you knew that we knew about you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jill said with a steadily-growing sense of fear.

"Carina, Jimmy, and I had plenty of time to prepare. The password you typed in? That just erased all of our hard drives and killed our network connections. And the flash drive you inserted to get our files? It only contains the files we stole from Jill's laptop. You can keep them; the CIA has plenty of copies."

Chuck pointed at the door. "And if you look at the top of the door, you can see you tripped our silent alarm, which means every government agent in L.A. County will be here in the next five minutes."

Sarah's eyes widened. She hoped and prayed the three of them had a plan. She just didn't realize how brilliant it would be. But then her team had a habit of pulling out miracles like this, and clearly Chuck was just as good at it.

"Wide-Area Misdirect. Morgan's favorite core on _Call of Duty_. The nerd in me really, REALLY wants to say checkmate right about now," Chuck teased.

Leader stood and got in Chuck's face. "You made one fatal mistake, Bartowski. Five minutes is four minutes longer than I need to kill all of you."

"If you had five minutes," Chuck replied. "Actually, you have about five seconds."

Leader looked back and forth. A loud explosion was heard outside. Carina dropped down from the ceiling and opened fire on the agents in the hallway. Jimmy crashed through the windows from the outside on a rope and harness and body-slammed Leader across the room. One of the remaining agents tried to attack him, but the uncuffed Casey jumped up and knocked him out with a brutal roundhouse. Jill tried to aim her gun, but Sarah tipped her chair back and kicked upward to knock it out of her hands. Jill ran for the exit, barely getting away from Carina firing at her, and went down the elevators.

Chuck quickly released Sarah. "That bitch is mine," Sarah roared as she ran out of the room in pursuit.

Jimmy untangled himself from his ropes. "Just like Master Chief. Right, Chuck?" he said with a smile.

"That's _Halo_ , Jimmy," Chuck replied.

"Oops," Jimmy replied in embarrassment. "That's what I get for growing up on _Pac_ - _Man_ and _Donkey Kong_."

"Let's go," Casey ordered. "We better find Walker before the walls are painted in Jill Roberts red."

The four started to leave when a growl was heard from behind them. Leader had gotten up off the floor and pointed his gun at them in an extreme rage. Jimmy dove at him and tackled him to the ground. Leader's shot went wide and the gun fell out of his hands.

"GO!" Jimmy yelled. "Get Chuck out of here!"

Casey and Carina grabbed Chuck and ran out of the room as Leader threw Jimmy off of him and got up quickly. He kicked Jimmy in the face hard, who rolled on the floor in a daze. Leader reached down for him when Jimmy kicked up his legs and grabbed Leader in between them by his neck, pushing hard to send Leader towards the windows. Both of them got up, and Leader pulled out a very large knife. He slashed at Jimmy, cutting him in his arm. Jimmy recoiled and growled in pain as blood dripped from his arm. Leader grew a little more confident as he continued to slash at Jimmy, but Jimmy avoided Leader's attempts. Leader changed tactics and tried to lunge at Jimmy's midsection, but Jimmy jumped left, pirouetted, and grabbed Leader's wrist, bending his entire arm back and elbowing him in the back of the head, throwing the knife away in the process. Jimmy stepped back towards the windows as Leader stumbled forward and put out his other arm to catch himself on the wall. He then turned back with a primal roar and came at Jimmy hard. Jimmy was knocked off balance and the two fell out of the window.

~/^\~

Chuck, Casey, and Carina bounded down the stairs to the main level. They heard the sounds of sirens outside.

"Teams, this is Major Casey," Casey announced over his radio. "Create a perimeter around the hotel. Nobody gets in our out. Hostiles still inside."

"We better find those two fast," Carina said. "Jill knows she's done, so how much do you want to bet she'd kill Sarah?"

Chuck looked around in the hallways. "I've got one idea left."

~/^\~

Jimmy and Leader plummeted towards the sidewalk. Jimmy quickly pulled out his piton gun and rope and fired at the building across the street. Leader saw what he did and grabbed him hard. The two swung towards the restaurant at street level and crashed through the large plate glass window, hurtling through the restaurant and through the kitchen doors. The employees and diners scattered in a panic.

Leader got to his feet and went at Jimmy again, who kicked up hard to knock him back. Jimmy flipped to his feet. Leader pulled a cooking knife out of a kitchen block and threw it at Jimmy, who reached for a cookie sheet and used it as a shield, the blade stopping just inches from his heart. Leader charged him and Jimmy swung the cookie sheet at his face, knocking him down. Leader swept his leg hard to trip Jimmy and got back up. Jimmy crawled back on his feet to get some distance as Leader grabbed a meat cleaver and started swinging away. Jimmy sidestepped him twice and knocked Leader's arm up on his third attempt. He tried to grab Leader's wrist, but Leader kneed him hard in the stomach. Jimmy fell back coughing profusely. Leader hung on to the meat cleaver.

"A lot harder to do without all your stuntmen around, isn't it," Leader sneered.

Jimmy was still doubled-over and coughing, leaning on a butcher block table and stove to stay on his feet. Leader started to come at him with the meat cleaver with a sense of victory.

Jimmy grabbed a cast-iron skillet from the stove and swung it at the meat cleaver, knocking it away easily. He looked up, only needing some green paint to be scarier than The Hulk.

"You tried to kill my friends…" Jimmy swung the skillet at Leader's face. "You tried to kill Chuck…" he swung it again at Leader from the other direction, who was starting to fall. "But do you know the worst thing you did?"

Jimmy slammed the skillet over Leader's head, who collapsed completely to the ground with an enormous dent in his skull.

"YOU TURNED ME INTO STEVEN FUCKING SEAGAL!"

Jimmy continued to hit his lifeless body with the skillet. "Do I look like I wear a fucking ponytail!? Do I whisper all of my lines and think I'm James Dean!? Do I gain 200 pounds and still think I'm an action star!?"

Someone behind Jimmy cleared their throat. "Are you done?" Carina asked.

Jimmy turned in surprise. He then looked at the skillet in his hand and placed it matter-of-factly on the table. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Come on, then. Time to wrap this up."

Carina and Jimmy walked out of the back of the restaurant.

~/^\~

Sarah moved quickly down the hallway with her gun pointed. One of Leader's remaining members tried to shoot at her, but she drilled him with a single shot. She walked past his body and continued to move down the hall looking for Jill.

Jill turned the corner and spotted Sarah at the far end of the hallway. She snuck forward, taking the gun from the agent Sarah shot, and aimed it in her direction.

"Stop, wait," Chuck whispered from behind her.

Jill jumped in surprise and turned back to see Chuck. She then looked down the hallway to see Sarah had turned the corner.

"You have to get out of here," Chuck whispered. "Your team is gone and those guys want to kill you. Just…come this way. You don't report me, I don't report you, OK?"

"Why? Why would you do that?" Jill asked.

"I…I just don't want to see anybody else get killed today, and I doubt Sarah and her team would listen to me this time. Not after everything that's happened. If you want to get out of this hotel and have any shot to get away from Fulcrum, you have to trust me."

Chuck put his hands up gently and wrapped one of them around Jill's gun. "Please, Jill. Sarah's already here, and the others will be down here any minute. Please, just come with me and I'll get you out of here."

Jill looked back. If everything Chuck said was true, she truly was out of options. And given how Sarah's team still managed to win despite having the odds completely stacked against them, she knew this was her only chance to get away.

"OK, fine," she said quietly.

"This way," Chuck said, leading her down the hallway.

"I don't know what to say, Chuck. After everything that happened and you still want to forgive me, I…I really regret everything I did to you. You didn't deserve it."

Chuck got to the back exit. "You know what? I didn't," he replied as he pushed the door open.

Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were waiting with their weapons drawn.

"What?" Jill was in complete shock.

"What? You don't recognize when someone's deceived you? I'm surprised, given how many times you did it to me."

Carina holstered her weapon and went to grab Jill.

"Chuck, how could you do this to me?" Jill wailed.

Carina grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed her on the hood of an NSA vehicle. "You have the nerve to ask that question, bitch?"

Carina forced her arms back. Jimmy kept his gun trained on Jill while Casey handcuffed her.

"The funny thing is," Chuck replied. "Even after deceiving me like you did, I still gave some thought to forgiving you. But then you wanted to kill my friends. And you tried to kill Sarah. You crossed the line."

Carina pulled Jill up and threw her into the back of the vehicle.

"And by the way, Jill," Chuck said. "Last night in the hotel in Monterey? I was faking it."

Jill's mouth dropped open in shock as the NSA vehicle took off.

"I'll go find Sarah," Carina said and walked back into the hotel.

"We'll need a new base of operations now," Casey said. "Better pray the show gets renewed, Bartowski. It's coming out of your pay."

"Ha ha ha, funny," Chuck replied, which got no reaction from Casey. "You ARE kidding, right?"

Casey gave a little grunt and walked back into the hotel.

"He IS kidding, right?" Chuck asked Jimmy, who only shrugged. "Great. Terrific."

"It was a helluva plan, Chuck," Jimmy said. "Absolutely brilliant. And just rubbing it in at the end there with Jill? I didn't think you had it in you. It was awesome."

Chuck stood there motionless. He then became downcast. "Not all of it was awesome."

Jimmy glanced over at him. He exhaled slowly. "Maybe not. But if there was someone who could make things right, it's definitely you."

"Any advice?"

Jimmy stared out into space for a moment, although it felt a lot longer to Chuck. "At the risk of sounding like a cheesy 80s song, don't hold back."

Chuck looked at Jimmy and a smile drew across his face. "Thanks, man," Chuck said as he pulled Jimmy in for a hug.

"No problem. You deserve the best."

The two walked back inside to find Sarah, Casey, and Carina.

 _ **O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA  
March 7, 2016  
11:30 AM PST**_

Sarah sat on the couch in her dressing room reading the first draft of the script for the next episode. Things were quiet at the studio, which was the reason she was here in the first place. They wouldn't start filming the final two episodes of the season until next week, and most of the crew was enjoying a few days off. After everything that had happened over the past few days, she needed the break as much as anybody. Unfortunately, they also needed to find a new hotel for her and the team's base of operations.

Three days later, it still hurt. And memorizing lines wasn't going to stop it from hurting.

The mission itself was a success. The CIA now had a list of Fulcrum operatives within the government and purging them from the ranks had already begun. Her team performed dazzlingly, especially the asset they were assigned to protect six months ago. Sarah had never seen anyone outside of her team…not even other agents…handle the pressure and perform as well as Chuck had. And that was before taking into account the woman he once loved betraying him on so many levels.

But the hurt she felt when Bryce left her was insignificant next to the hurt she was feeling now. When Bryce left, she thought she could go back to her old ways, not even realizing there were people who depended on her. People who needed her to lead. And when they brought in Jimmy to replace Bryce, she knew she had to be responsible to her team, to get the best out of them that she could. And she did.

Unfortunately, she had no way of putting Chuck out of her mind. They would have to get back together because he was still the government's most important asset and it was her job to protect him. And as long as it was, what she truly wanted was irrelevant. She was starting to wish she was never given this assignment in the first place.

She got up when she heard a knock on her door.

"Ellie?" Sarah asked in surprise when she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I…I had the morning off from work and I tried to track you down," Ellie replied. "Carina said you might be here."

Sarah stepped aside to let her in. "What can I do for you?"

Ellie pensively sat down on the couch. "I wanted to talk to you about Chuck."

Sarah's heart sank. Chuck was the last person she wanted to think about right now, but she didn't have any choice. As far as Ellie was concerned, Sarah dumped him.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I…I think the world of Chuck. I really do. I just couldn't stand to put him through all of this. The pressure of being in the spotlight, having the tabloids follow his every move."

Sarah shook her head and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, I'm being stupid. You deal with more pressure in one day than I do in my entire career."

Ellie put her hand up. "No apologies necessary, Sarah. I just…it's obvious the two of you breaking up is hurting you. I just wish I could understand why you'd throw away a shot at true happiness because of some bastards on a TV show or a magazine or a website."

"It's...complicated, Ellie."

Ellie moved closer to Sarah on the couch. "Sarah, just answer me one question. Do you think Chuck could make you happy? If he can't, then I'm sorry for badgering you like this and I promise never to bother you again. But do you think you could be happy with someone like Chuck?"

Sarah looked at Ellie and a few tears formed in her eyes. She knew what the answer to that question was. Emphatically so. But to get what she truly wanted meant to risk losing that very thing.

"Ellie, I just can't do that."

"No," Ellie replied forcefully. "Do not do that to yourself. Don't throw away your shot at happiness because of what others think. If you want something bad enough, you go and get it. Chuck is a very special person. I know it and you know it. If you love him, if he's the one for you, you never stop and you never quit! You never go too far! You gotta be willing to throw all of this away to be with him! Because the absolute worst thing you can do is leave this world knowing that you had a chance to be truly happy and didn't take it!"

Ellie exhaled slowly. "Jen Burton is one of the toughest, most honest, most loyal, and most beautiful characters in television history. I really hope it's because of the woman who plays her."

She walked to the door and opened it. She then turned back. "Whatever you decide, I'll respect it. Just know either way, you're the best thing that ever happened to my brother."

Ellie closed the door, and Sarah sank back down on the couch.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel - Burbank, CA  
March 8, 2016  
9:00 PM PST**_

Sarah heard the knock on her door and went to answer it.

"Hey," Chuck said when she opened it.

"Come in," she replied.

Chuck took a look around the room as he entered. The room looked more spacious than her prior room, but then with all of the computer and surveillance equipment set up, Sarah had barely anywhere to keep her personal items.

"I guess our conferences will be a lot cozier," Chuck said playfully.

"It's just temporary. We'll have a new room set up across the way in a week or two. It'll be the same."

"Although I hear the happy hour specials here aren't as good," Chuck quipped, which didn't even get a smile out of Sarah. He exhaled slowly. "I just came by to see if you're OK. This whole thing with the Fulcrum list, with Jill…"

"I'm OK, Chuck," Sarah replied, her guard completely up.

"I mean, everything worked out in the end, but I still wish it didn't happen that way."

"Missions almost never go according to plan, but the team still prevailed."

Chuck felt his entire body clench. "Agent Walker, is it OK if I talked to Sarah for a minute?"

"What?" Sarah demanded.

"The things I had to do to make this work were horrible. If I had the choice, I never would have done any of them. I just can't stand to see how what happened has affected you."

Sarah shrugged. "You didn't do anything any one of us hasn't done before. Once the Intersect is out of your head, I'd think you would make a terrific agent."

Chuck thought he couldn't hurt worse than he did when he found out Jill betrayed him, but he was clearly wrong. "Then I guess I came here under false assumptions." He turned to the door. "I'll see you at the studio," he rasped as a few tears began to form in his eyes.

"It hurt me!" Sarah cried. Chuck immediately turned around. "Seeing you with Jill, the things you had to do, her betraying you, it was killing me! It was worse than when Bryce left!"

"I knew it was," Chuck said, his voice shaky. "We all did. I wanted so badly to not have to do any of it. I would rather have been killed by Fulcrum than see you get hurt. I am so sorry to put you through all of that."

"Stop saying you're sorry!" Sarah couldn't stop the tears from flowing. "You did what you had to do! You did what I told you to do! I asked you to help us with this mission, to take the heat for our breakup, and to reconnect with the woman who broke your heart at Stanford! And you did that! You're the reason we stopped them! But how I feel right now, this is my fault! This is my responsibility! I'm the one who did this! You shouldn't be apologizing to me! I should be apologizing to you!"

Chuck sank down on the bed. His entire posture slumped. "I wanted to help you," he said softly. "The way you've helped me. The way all of you have helped me. Casey, Carina, Jimmy…they'd give their lives for you. So would I."

Sarah sat down next to him and wiped her tears away. "You did. You've always been far more than just someone who gave us information. You're one of the bravest and smartest people I've ever met. And one of the sweetest."

"Not the funniest?" Chuck said with a raised eyebrow, which made Sarah laugh. "OK, now we know where we stand with that."

Chuck shuffled his feet and then pulled a small bag out of his pocket. "There's…um…something I've been meaning to give you. Just to...just to show how much you've meant to me. I just haven't had a good time to do it these last few days for obvious reasons."

"Chuck, you don't need to give me…"

Sarah stared at the bracelet Chuck was holding in his hand. "Wow. It's beautiful."

"It's…good luck." Chuck opened the bracelet and Sarah put out her wrist for Chuck to put it on. "It was my mom's charm bracelet. My dad gave it to her when Ellie was born."

"Chuck, I can't…I can't take this. This is something you should give to a real girlfriend."

Chuck held her hand. "I know. But I just don't think I'll live the rest of my life and find someone who is more real than you."

Sarah's grip on Chuck's hand tightened as she gazed into his eyes. She felt the echo of Ellie's words in her mind. She remembered how both Carina and Jimmy said the team needed their leader but they also needed the woman Sarah had become in the last three years. And that Sarah was starting to tire of thinking she couldn't love someone and protect them at the same time. It happened to other agents who had fallen in love with an asset, sometimes with deadly results. But Chuck was more than just an asset and always was. And if he was brave enough to fall into the dangerous world of espionage and thrive, she shouldn't be stopped by her fears any longer.

Her other hand glided up to his cheek, caressing it gently. Her fingers then tightened and pulled his face towards her. Their eyes closed and their heads began to tilt…

"Agent Walker, Mr. Bartowski, good to see both of you."

Chuck and Sarah quickly separated at seeing the image of General Beckman on the monitor.

"W-what is it, General?" Sarah asked, trying to regain her composure.

"Our analysts have taken a close look at the data your team obtained from Jill Roberts' laptop. It appears, besides Mr. Bartowski, they were after a scientist. They have operatives everywhere looking for this man."

"Who is this person?" Chuck asked.

"We are not sure ourselves what the name of the man is, but Fulcrum's codename for him is Orion."

Chuck and Sarah glanced at each other. "Orion?" Chuck asked.

Beckman nodded. "We have reason to believe that Orion was the creator of the Intersect. And Fulcrum may know his whereabouts."

Chuck and Sarah stared at the monitor in shock.

* * *

 _ **AUTHOR'S NOTE II:**_ I know...you hate me. I can be mean sometimes, can't deny it.


	20. Put Him Down For a 'One'

_Hello. I was able to get this chapter out much faster because it follows show canon fairly closely. In fact, I typed almost 5,000 words in just the last six hours. I've moved forward to "Chuck vs. the Beefcake" for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this is where we start making the turn towards the end of the second season and we start seeing elements of the story that will have a big effect on later chapters. Secondly...and more importantly...we get a character involved that has had a little bit of time in the spotlight, but based on the AU of this story, now comes front-and-center in this one. This means the Chuck-and-Sarah arc takes a bit of a back seat for the moment, but I promise there will be no relationship angst. In fact, the hard part about writing this chapter was trying to write it with no angst at all, which was something of a theme when this episode came out._

 _Anyway, please enjoy this chapter. The parts that are show canon (quite a few parts this time) are still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And if it's been a while since you left a review, please feel free to do so. I respond to all reviews (if the viewer is registered; I can't really respond to those who aren't, sadly), and I always explain my thinking. And sometimes you get little tidbits and previews of what's to come._

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Unknown Location  
March 8, 2016  
3:00 AM**_

The man conducted a search on his computer. The program he invented worked just like a Google search on steroids. It could find information on any drive on any computer in the world, bypassing whatever firewall and security was set up on it. Although he had to concede his current search didn't need anything that sophisticated.

He looked at the photographs. He saw the images of Charles Carmichael, but he knew better. Carmichael was just for the public's benefit, and he knew the true history of the person on the monitors in front of him. There were dozens of pictures. Some of them were of Chuck by himself, some were with Ellie and Devon, a few pictures had Chuck and Morgan in them. Most of the pictures featured Chuck with the stars of _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_. He saw the surveillance from the Grand Seville of John Casey pulling him out of the swimming pool. He saw Chuck being kissed by Carina at Sarah's high school reunion. He saw Chuck and Jimmy talking on the set of the TV show, but he winced at the image. And he saw many images of Chuck with Sarah. Given he knew the four were really government agents, he assumed Chuck was pretending to be Sarah's boyfriend. But he knew Chuck well, and it was clear to the man there was more to the two of them than that.

And it made him happy. Happier than he ever had been in his life. Perhaps even happier than when he found out Ellie was going to get married.

He was interrupted by a pounding on the door. He quickly closed his laptop and powered down the system, exiting out of the fire escape as his door was broken down. He descended to street level and could hear the beeping coming from his apartment. The beeping stopped, and an explosion destroyed the entire floor.

Whoever was pursuing him would never bother him again.

 _ **Studio 6B, 30 Rockefeller Plaza – New York, NY  
March 14, 2016  
5:00 PM EDT**_

Jimmy stood in the darkness behind the curtains. He peeked outside to see the crowd at the opposite end of the stage. After the insanity of the previous week, an appearance on _The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon_ should have been a cakewalk. But this was the first time he would be the first guest. The media blackout on Chuck and Sarah would still be in effect for another week, filming the show was pushed back an extra week, and Carina and he were the only ones in the public eye. At least this time, she was being dragged into this; she was four blocks away taping her appearance on _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_ for airing tomorrow. Unfortunately, he wasn't done by a landslide: he had appearances on _The Chew_ and _Live! with Kelly and Michael_ to do early tomorrow, and he'd have to go through the same routine again.

"Thank you everyone," Jimmy Fallon said as the music faded out. "You know my first guest. He plays superspy Lance McCall alongside the gorgeous Sarah Walker on the wildly popular _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_. Please give it up for the man with the coolest first name in Hollywood…Jimmy Slade!"

The Roots started playing the James Bond theme and two spotlights swept back and forth between each other to mimic the beginning credits of a Bond film. Jimmy walked across the stage in the spotlights, got to the middle, and turned towards the audience, firing a super soaker with a big grin on his face. The crowed laughed and applauded as the lights were brought up on the stage. Jimmy walked over to Fallon, shook his hand and sat down, placing the super soaker behind the couch.

"Jimmy, how are you doing?" Fallon asked.

"I'm doing well," Jimmy replied. "I think this is the first time that I've been the first guest."

"Yes, yes it is. And it's about time, too."

"Man, how many people in Hollywood turned you down first?" The crowd laughed at that. "You must have called hundreds before you gave up and called me. Really, were ALL the _Real Housewives of Atlanta_ busy? No ex- _Bachelors_ or _Bachelorettes_? Even a first-season _Dancing with the Stars_ contestant would have been a better choice."

"Jimmy, come on. I didn't call hundreds of other people first." Fallon took a beat. "The booking department did that." That drew another laugh from the crowd. "So how is it going on the show? It seems every week, that show gets crazier and crazier. In a good way."

"Well, we're off for now before we shoot the last two episodes for this season. But everybody is doing great. This is a very fun job to have. I highly recommend it."

"Excellent. Is there anything you can tell us? Any cliffhangers we need to worry about?"

"I can't give the full details. But…spoiler alert…we all die in the season finale and I wake up next to Bob Newhart."

The crowd went into hysterics at that. "Speaking of romantic pairings, have you talked to Chuck or Sarah at all?" Fallon asked. "I mean; I think I can speak for quite a few people when I say those are two people that belong together."

Jimmy hemmed and hawed for a moment. "That's true. I haven't really talked to either of them about it. I figured it's none of my business. But I can sympathize with people who hate those 'will they-or-won't they' types of relationships. I want both of them to be happy, no matter what happens. I mean, it's so hard to find the right person in this world as it is. Hell, look at me."

Fallon gave him an odd look. "Yeah, women are so sick of incredibly handsome and funny guys these days."

"I know, right?" The crowd laughed again. "I always had trouble growing up. My mom dropped me off at school once and got a ticket for littering." The crowd laughed even harder. "I mean, if laughter is the best medicine, then my sex life could cure cancer."

"OK, Rodney," Fallon replied with considerable snark.

Jimmy put a hand up. "Yeah, I do sound like him whenever I get started like that." Jimmy clutched at his tie. "I tell ya I'm all right now, but last week I was in rough shape, ya know?" he said in a dead-on imitation of Rodney Dangerfield, which got the crowd into further hysterics.

~/^\~

Jimmy walked into the green room where Sarah was waiting for him and collapsed on the couch. She closed the door so they wouldn't have to shout over the musical guest playing to finish the show.

"How was that?" Jimmy tiredly asked.

"You were amazing, just like you always are on these shows," she replied…and smacked him upside the head.

"Ow! Thanks a lot!" Jimmy growled.

"You know the worst thing about you? The whole audience thinks that 'I'm such a loser' routine you have is just an act but we know you're not acting! When are you going to stop doing that?"

"Depends. What's the temperature in Hell right now?"

"Enough," Sarah hissed.

"Give me a break, I'm exhausted." Jimmy rubbed his temples. "It would have been nice if they had told me in advance we were going to play 'Pup Quiz'. I wouldn't have shown up in a $3,000 suit."

Sarah started laughing hysterically. "Oh, I loved that! That's the best thing to have happened to the team in weeks! You looked so adorable with all of those puppies jumping around on you!"

"Yeah, bad enough I was an idiot and answered all the questions correctly. And I think one of those puppies took a leak on my pant leg. But those stupid names they came up with for the dogs? Doggy Galore? Goldpaw? Miss Moneypuppy?"

"Like you didn't see that coming," Sarah said, unable to contain her laughter. "You star on the most popular spy show since _Mission: Impossible_."

"Fine," Jimmy growled. "But the next time I hear you bitching about your lip sync performance, you get a smack upside the head."

"You wouldn't dare," Sarah said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, I might go to the grave for you, but getting pissed on by a puppy is stretching it."

Sarah's phone rang. "Hello? OK, Chuck. We'll be right there." Sarah hung up her phone. "Beckman called him at the hotel. She's ready with the intel, and Carina should be heading that way now."

"Good, spy work. Something I can't screw up as badly."

Sarah gave him another smack upside the head as they left the green room and headed for the exit to take the limousine back to the hotel.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 14, 2016  
7:00 PM EDT**_

"Glad to see Agents Miller and Slade are making the talk show rounds," Beckman said over videoconference in the hotel room the team booked. "Mr. Bartowski, I commend you for making the capture of Jill Roberts and the Fulcrum data a success. Your breakup plan worked brilliantly."

"Well, I think it's safe to say it was a team effort, General. But I did my part, so thank you," he replied, which earned a grunt of derision from Casey.

"Unfortunately, we have a long way to go." Several images popped up on the monitors. "We believe the data Fulcrum is seeking is in the possession of this man, Cole Barker. He is a freelance mercenary, selling his considerable skills to whoever can afford his fee."

"Quite the ladies' man," Casey observed, given the number of beautiful women surrounding Cole in the images.

"We believe he is on his way to New York to sell the data he possesses to Fulcrum. We are uncertain what specific data he has on Orion or the Intersect nor do we know his Fulcrum contacts. It'll be up to all of you to retrieve whatever intelligence he's carrying…by any means necessary. This is a potential game-changer, people. We need everyone at their best."

Chuck looked at one of the pictures. "Could we…could we get in a little closer on this picture of Cole? Maybe push in on his…groinal area?"

"You seeing something you like down there, Bartowski?" Casey asked in a derisive tone.

Jimmy adjusted the image as Chuck requested. Chuck focused on Cole's belt buckle and began to flash, seeing images of salamanders, a computer chip, a folder with Fulcrum data, and several individuals with guns.

"Oh," Chuck said, shaking his head clear from his flash. "The intelligence is in Cole's belt buckle."

Casey grunted in amusement. "Looks like we have to get his pants off." He turned to Carina. "You're up."

Carina stood and looked at the image. "Piece of cake," she said with a smile.

 _ **Baccarat Hotel & Residences – New York, NY  
March 15, 2016  
9:00 PM EDT**_

Carina sauntered into the lounge in her slinkiest black dress, her long red hair flowing over the spaghetti straps on her shoulders, and wearing just the right amount of liner to enhance her sky blue eyes. She hid her gun underneath her dress on a thigh holster. The clip in her hair hid a small HD camera that sent a live feed to Chuck and Sarah, who were sitting across the street from the hotel in a surveillance van watching what Carina saw in addition to the hotel's surveillance cameras. Casey and Jimmy saw the same feed on their smartphones as they staked themselves out in the stairwells, ready to go if needed.

Carina took a look around the room. The lighting was darkened, but people would still easily recognize her. However, the advantage of being in New York was that people saw celebrities all the time and usually took it in stride, at least in Manhattan. She walked to the end of the bar and ordered a drink, keeping her back to the crowd so no one would walk up to her.

"Beefcake just stepped in," Casey said over their earpieces as Cole entered the room and sat down at a chair at the opposite end from Carina.

"Where's his contact?" Chuck asked.

"Do I have an Intersect in my head? Check the cameras."

Chuck checked all of the monitors. Carina turned slowly so her camera picked up every club patron.

"Anything, Chuck?" Sarah asked him.

"Not so far," Chuck replied with a shake of his head. "I'm not flashing on anyone."

"OK. Carina, are you ready?"

"All set," she replied.

"Wait, is this really safe for her? I mean all of you have really been putting your necks on the line lately. Can't we just throw a bag over his head and drag him outside? Casey, you're always up for a good mugging."

"We'd blow our cover in about two seconds, Chuck," Jimmy said. "And we don't want to spook Cole's contact. We're already out on a limb with Carina in there."

"The seat next to Cole just opened up," Carina said. "Here I go."

"Go get him," Jimmy said. "It's Miller time."

She rolled her eyes. "Three years and that is still so lame."

Carina walked slowly across the bar and approached Cole. "Is this seat taken?" she asked, gesturing to the seat next to him before sitting down. "I noticed you sitting alone."

"Very observant," Cole replied dryly.

"Would you like some company?"

"Not really."

"Neither do I. That's why I had to sit over here. The price you pay for being famous: everyone tries to crowd you." Carina sat back and crossed her legs, making sure Cole got to see plenty of thigh.

"Rest assured, you won't have that problem with me. In fact, I should make one thing abundantly clear. I'm not a very nice guy."

"Good. That's what I like to hear. Sometimes the fans get too eager. They worship you, and sometimes they get to be a bit too much."

Cole leaned forward. "And what do you prefer?"

"Me?" Carina fixed him with her best prurient gaze. "Can I tell you a little secret? The characters we play? They're based on the actors who play them. Sarah's the responsible one. John Casey's a hard-ass, and Jimmy Slade's an overgrown boy scout with a weak sense of humor."

"Ouch," Jimmy said quietly over their earpieces.

"Not now," Sarah hissed. "Besides, she's right."

"Still, ouch!"

"And what about you?" Cole asked Carina.

"I'm into bad boys," she purred, giving him the full-on licentious gaze. "They know when to shut up and just take charge."

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Well, why don't we stop talking and take this up to my room. You have my word nothing nice will happen."

Cole stood and offered his hand, which Carina took to stand up herself. They walked slowly to the elevator and stepped inside.

"What room is yours?" Carina asked.

"1121," Cole replied as he hit the button for the eleventh floor. "It's a suite with a fantastic view. A giant king-sized bed and a Jacuzzi tub."

"Sarah, what if…what if she gets in trouble?" Chuck asked from the van.

"We use a safe word," she replied. If Carina asks for some Cristal champagne, Casey and Jimmy know to go get her."

Chuck looked towards the lobby again and saw four men enter and head towards the elevators. He began to flash, seeing the passports of each one.

"Sarah…Sarah," Chuck stammered and pointed at one of the monitors. "Those four by the elevators are all with Fulcrum."

"Are they going up to eleven?" Casey asked.

Sarah shook her head. "We can't tell. The security camera isn't pointed at the elevator buttons. Be ready to move, you two."

Casey and Jimmy ran up the stairwells and stood outside of the eleventh floor exits as Carina and Cole got to his suite. Cole opened the door and Carina took the opportunity to pounce, kissing him hard. She pushed him into the room with her body, her arms wrapped around his neck. She turned him and pushed him up against the door, forcing it closed. She got his jacket off.

"Let's get this off of you," Carina said in a husky voice, going for Cole's belt.

Colt grabbed her wrists. "Not so fast, honey. We're just getting started." He kissed her harder and held her arms over her head. Her hair clip fell to the floor.

"I usually don't do this on a first date," Carina panted between kisses. "Oh, who am I kidding. I always do this on a first date."

Carina got her hands loose and started to unbutton Cole's shirt, quickly working her way down to his belt again. He walked both of them across the room. Carina tipped herself over the back of the couch and fell to the carpet, taking Cole with her. She immediately rolled to get on top of him and went for his belt. Cole got up with Carina's legs wrapped around him and pushed her up against the windows.

"Now we're talking," Carina purred, finally getting Cole's belt off. He quickly grabbed it and bound Carina's wrists with it. He held her hands above her head again and kissed her hard.

"Getting a little kinky, are we?" Carina said with a lascivious gaze.

"Not exactly," Cole replied. He reached under Carina's dress and grabbed the gun on her thigh holster. He then stepped back and cocked it.

"I knew you weren't just happy to see me," Cole said in a menacing tone.

~/^\~

Chuck and Sarah nervously watched the elevator to see what floor the four Fulcrum agents would exit. The doors then opened.

"Eighth floor," Sarah said quickly to Casey and Jimmy. "Get down there."

Casey and Jimmy ran down three floors in opposite stairwells and entered the eighth floor hallway. The Fulcrum agents spotted them and immediately pulled out their guns, opening fire at them. Casey and Jimmy hit the deck and returned fire. Casey got the first agent, but a second one charged at him guns blazing, forcing him to drop back. Jimmy got a few steps forward to where the elevators were. He looked back to see a woman pushing a stroller out of the elevator.

"Get back!" he shouted, pushing the stroller back into the elevator. He fired two shots then glanced to his left to make sure the elevator closed. It did…with only the stroller. Which had a doll in it instead of a baby. He quickly turned behind him.

"SHIT!" he screamed and dove backwards, firing away at the woman who had the stroller. Only now she was in possession of an automatic weapon. She backed away, but that left Jimmy out in the open with another agent aiming right at him.

Casey jumped out and fired, killing that agent.

Chuck and Sarah took their earwigs out in pain from hearing the gunshots. Sarah immediately pulled out her gun.

"Stay in the van, Chuck, and call for backup!" she shouted and bolted out of the van, heading into the hotel.

Chuck typed the appropriate command into the computer and put his earwig back in. He turned it back on in time to hear the word "champagne" from Carina. His eyes widened.

"Sarah, Sarah, Carina's in trouble. She asked for Cristal!" Chuck said quickly but got no response. Chuck began to panic when he realized Sarah took off without putting her earwig back in. The backup was at least six minutes away according to the computer, and only if traffic was good.

He exited the van and ran into the hotel. He sprinted towards the elevator and took it to the eleventh floor.

~/^\~

"Enough games, sweetheart. Whom do you work for?"

Carina stared down Cole. "I don't work for anybody. That's for my own protection."

"Most celebrities have bodyguards. And you're awfully calm for someone who is tied up and has their own gun pointed at them."

Cole stepped forward. "So the question remains…whom do you work for?"

~/^\~

Sarah stepped out of the elevator on the eighth floor and had to duck down immediately to avoid being hit. Four more Fulcrum agents joined their remaining two partners to continue the assault on Casey and Jimmy. The woman who had the stroller was gone.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jimmy yelled over the noise as Sarah crawled over to him. "Carina needs help!"

Sarah's eyes widened. "Dammit, I took my earwig out."

Jimmy looked to his right at the stairwell. "Go for the stairwell on three," he ordered as he reloaded. "One…two…three!"

Jimmy leaped up and emptied both clips at the oncoming Fulcrum agents, taking out two of them. Sarah sprinted for the door and went into the stairwell, bounding up the stairs to the eleventh floor.

~/^\~

Chuck ran out of the elevator and down the hall to 1121. He pounded on the door. "Carina!" he yelled.

Inside the room, Cole turned in surprise. It was the break Carina needed. She spun on her heel and kicked the gun out of Cole's hands. She braced her fingers together and swung her elbows, nailing Cole in the face. She went for the gun as he tried to clear his head, and she pistol-whipped him, sending him to the ground.

Chuck took two steps back and ran for the door, attempting to break it down. He rammed his shoulder and recoiled from the pain.

Sarah came around the other corner. "What the hell are you doing up here?" she demanded.

"Carina needed help and you took out your...I'll explain later!" He ran at the door again but got the same result. He held his throbbing shoulder as he growled from the pain.

"Use your foot, Chuck," Sarah said in exasperation.

Chuck braced himself, brought his foot up, and kicked the door hard, finally getting it open. "Aaaagh," he groaned as he limped around. "Case and Jimmy make that look so easy on the show."

Sarah ignored him and charged inside with her gun drawn, only to find Carina with her gun trained on the prone Cole, her hands still bound by his belt, and her stiletto on his back. Sarah gave her an odd look.

"Uh, did you capture him or is this just foreplay?"

~/^\~

Chuck, Sarah, and Carina escorted a handcuffed Cole to the top level of the parking garage.

"Casey, Jimmy, we've got the belt and Agent Barker, and we're heading to the car," Chuck said over his earpiece.

"You guys are making a huge mistake…" Cole began.

"You just keep your mouth shut and we'll deal with your later."

"There won't be a later unless you listen to me. You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Drop it, Cole," Carina said. "I've dealt with guys much smarter and better looking than you."

They turned when they heard the sound of helicopter blades coming from a rather intimidating looking craft that rose up to the level of the roof.

"That's not our ride," Sarah said in shock.

The helicopter opened fire on them with an M134 mini-gun mounted on its wing. Sarah and Carina dove for cover as Chuck and Cole ducked down behind another vehicle. Sarah and Carina got to their knees and crawled to the next car over.

"Chuck, stay down!" Carina ordered. "We're going to try and draw fire away from you." She then switched to her earwig. "Case, Jimmy, it's Carina. We need help now!"

Sarah and Carina stood and opened fire at the helicopter, which turned its attention to them. Both of them barely got out of the way of a hail of bullets.

~/^\~

Casey and Jimmy were still pinned down on the eighth floor shooting it out with the Fulcrum agents.

"We gotta get upstairs!" Jimmy yelled.

Casey looked back and forth. "Slade!"

Jimmy turned to see Casey wrench a pair of fire extinguishers from the walls. He threw them at the agents, and Jimmy fired at both. The extinguishers exploded as they got to the Fulcrum agents, blinding them. Casey and Jimmy charged towards them guns blazing, reaching the stairwell. They went through the door and sprinted up the stairs.

~/^\~

Chuck looked in fear as Sarah and Carina tried to charge the helicopter but were quickly running out of ammunition.

"Listen to me very carefully," Cole said quickly. "I'm not a rogue agent. I'm MI-6 working undercover."

"Why didn't you say anything before?!" Chuck shouted over the din.

"Because I didn't want to blow my cover!"

The helicopter began to decimate the car Sarah and Carina were hiding behind.

"How do I know you're not lying?" Chuck asked.

"You don't. But if you want them to live, you don't have a choice."

Chuck looked towards Sarah and Carina. They were out of ammunition and the helicopter continued to fire to prevent them from moving.

Chuck and Cole peeked to see several agents drop from the helicopter.

"Do something or they're already dead!" Cole shouted.

Chuck stared at him momentarily. He then went for the handcuff key and freed Cole. Cole reached into his briefcase and pulled out two guns.

"Thanks," he said and charged towards where Sarah and Carina were cornered, rolling over the hood of a car to get to them.

"You better not be lying to me!" Chuck shouted.

"Get down!" he shouted at Sarah and Carina.

Cole stood and fired both guns at the helicopter's tail rotor, shooting off the blades. The helicopter began to spin out of control, losing altitude quickly and plunging in the East River.

The agents on the roof charged towards Sarah, Carina, and Cole. Cole fired the last of his shots, hitting two of them. The remaining agents began to return fire. They were then forced to drop back as Casey and Jimmy emerged onto the roof and sprayed the area with bullets. Two of the agents managed to get close, but Sarah took one out with a roundhouse while Carina took out the other with a spinning back kick. Casey grabbed another agent and rammed his head into the car while Jimmy leaped over the car to scissor kick two others down. The last one went for Chuck, but Cole grabbed him and knocked him out with a wicked hook.

The group looked at each other, completely shocked they managed to survive.

"Do I still have to show up for _The View_ tomorrow?" Jimmy asked, breathing heavily.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 16, 2016  
12:00 AM EDT**_

"I want to apologize to you directly, Agent Barker," Beckman said over videoconference as the team gathered in the hotel. "We had no record you were MI-6."

"You people just blew eighteen months of undercover work," Cole snarled. He watched Chuck fool around with the chip. "Don't bother. Whatever information is on that chip is useless without the playback device."

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"Fulcrum devised a system to ensure that critical information, if intercepted, couldn't be read. My mission was to bring the chip to my contact and find out what's on it. To do that, we need the playback device."

"And we scared away your contact," Jimmy said in frustration.

Cole sat back for a moment. "Perhaps not. Agent Casey, you're certain that one woman who got away only saw you and Agent Slade?"

"Correct," Casey replied. "The rest of their agents are either dead or in our custody.

"Which means there's a chance they won't connect me to all of you being there. Maybe I can still pull off the sale."

"You'll stay with the team tonight, Agent Barker, until I have a chance to talk to your superiors," Beckman said. "I'll brief them on the situation." She disconnected the link.

"Let's reconvene at 0800 hours," Sarah said. Everybody headed for the door to return to their respective hotel rooms.

Carina and Cole stopped by the room the team arranged for him. "Here's your key," Carina said. "We have people retrieving your things from the Baccarat. You'll have them for the morning."

"Excellent," Cole replied in a smooth voice. "I am forced to admit you did have me fooled at first. The whole 'Hollywood star' motif. It is impressive. Shame you couldn't close the deal."

"What are you talking about?" Carina asked.

"For someone who prides herself on being a bad girl, you come up a bit short. Maybe it's from working with these others, but you don't have what it takes to be truly ruthless like me."

"Really?" she replied, starting to get a bit offended.

"I wouldn't call it a character flaw. The person who can pull that off is quite rare in this world. But if you think you can be a truly cold-hearted seductress, I believe you'll find yourself headed for disappointment."

Carina scoffed and got closer to him. "I've gotten men far more attractive and charming than you to do as I wish. You're nothing special."

Cole's gaze bore through Carina's eyes. His fingers gently stroked her cheek, gliding downward to her chin. He pulled her face closer, his eyes never leaving hers and his lips mere centimeters away. Carina could feel her chest constricting.

"I guess you'll never know," he said as he opened the door to his room. "Good night," he said as he closed the door, leaving Carina standing in the hallway with her mouth agape.

~/^\~

Chuck knocked on the door to Sarah's room. "Hey there," he said quietly when she opened it.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I…I'm sorry for earlier, running up to find Carina like that. You keep telling me not to run into danger and I don't seem to listen…"

"That's my fault, Chuck. I'm still mad at myself for not putting my earwig back in. I should have been paying attention instead of running in without thinking."

"Hey, you were trying to protect your friends. Case and Jimmy were in trouble…"

"…and so was Carina, but I didn't know that. And because I didn't, your life ended up being in danger."

"But…"

Sarah put her hand gently on Chuck's mouth. "Chuck, you can tell me all you want it's not my fault, but that won't make it so. And you are so wonderful for trying to cushion the blow, but I have to play this out in my head. I have to learn from what I did wrong tonight. I mean, didn't the same thing happen to you in school when a big project didn't go right?" Chuck nodded in agreement. "I just need to do this."

She kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug. "I appreciate you being there tonight." She then put a finger to his face. "But no more heroic stunts like that, OK?"

"OK," Chuck replied.

"Good night, Chuck," Sarah said softly and retreated to her room. Chuck walked down the hall to his.

~/^\~

Carina lay back on her bed and her mind was racing. She always considered herself to be a confident person, flirting on the border of arrogance. But the more she thought about tonight, the madder she got. It was building up inside of her, and she was starting to lose her mind.

She bolted out of bed, quickly threw on her silk robe, and stalked out of her room, heading down the hallway. She pounded on Cole's door. He opened it wearing only a pair of silk boxers.

"Hmmm, forty-five minutes," he said with a knowing grin. "You should have placed a wager against me. I expected you to return after thirty."

Carina was breathing fire. "There is only one good thing about being forced to admit you're right."

"What's that?"

Carina shoved him hard into his room, kicking the door closed behind them, and grabbed him roughly. "No one will ever know," she panted as she kissed him, her tongue snaking down into his throat. He caught up quickly and the two fell around the room, knocking each other off-stride, their lips never breaking contact.

"But I'll know I was right," he huffed. "I'm better at being bad than you."

"Then shut up," Carina growled, ripping his boxers off and ditching her robe.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 16, 2016  
6:30 AM EDT**_

Jimmy exited his room and headed for the elevators. He pressed the down button and waited. He turned when he heard the door of another hotel room open. He turned to see Carina try to tiptoe out of Cole's room, her robe barely around her.

"Well, I can't say I'm totally shocked," Jimmy said with a raised eyebrow.

"What are you doing up?" she asked angrily.

"Apparently spending your night dodging bullets and rescuing your comrades doesn't give you a free pass from doing interviews. I've got _The Today Show_ and _The View_ to do this morning. I'll be lucky if I don't fall asleep right on camera. Could be worse, I guess. I won't be interviewed by Kathie Lee and Hoda and Rosie O'Donnell isn't on _The View_ anymore."

Carina gestured towards Cole's room. "I…I was just…"

"I don't want to know," Jimmy replied, tiredly waving it off. Not even his morning coffee was going to help with this.

"Just…don't tell Sarah, OK? If she found out, she'd never let me hear the end of it."

"Yeah, no problem."

Carina smiled and gave him a kiss. "Thanks."

"Just make sure you're back to being Carina before we meet Cole's contact. Sarah's bad enough right now with Chuck. I can't even imagine what would happen if you start to really like this guy."

Carina playfully growled at him as she walked past to return to her room. Jimmy entered the elevators to go off for his interviews.

 _ **Museum of Modern Art, 53**_ _ **rd**_ _ **Street and 5**_ _ **th**_ _ **Avenue – New York, NY  
March 16, 2016  
1:00 PM EDT**_

Cole looked around as hundreds of New Yorkers went past him. This was as far from ideal of a situation for a spy to be in, but there was little choice. Cole decided to make contact without having the chip in his possession. It was a move Carina strongly objected, but Sarah agreed there was less risk in Fulcrum getting its hands on the chip if it was far away. Carina and Sarah staked themselves thirty feet away from Cole while Casey kept watch with a pair of binoculars on an awning just above the museum's entrance. Ten blocks away, Chuck and Jimmy hid in the New York Public Library with the chip, ready to go if they needed to.

"My contact is late," Cole said quietly into his watch.

"Any sign of Fulcrum?" Sarah asked. Carina and she were dressed in very conservative business suits and pulled their hair back in ponytails so that they blended in with the workday crowd.

"Hard to tell. They all look the same," Casey replied from the awning.

Sarah, Carina, and Cole continued to look around. They tensed whenever a passerby quickly turned their head, got into or out of a vehicle or went for something in their coats, even if it was a smartphone.

"Jimmy, what's your status?" Sarah asked.

"Quiet over here," he replied. "I haven't seen anyone come near us."

They saw a limousine pull up and a man exited the vehicle. "There he is," Cole said. "We're on."

"Signal when you have the playback device," Casey said. "Sarah and Carina will move in."

Cole walked up to the man. "You got the chip?" the man asked him.

"You got the playback device?" Cole countered.

Across the street, two people sat in the back of a Rolls Royce. One of them had a laptop computer in front of them as the other observed the meet between Cole and his contact.

"Something's not right," the woman said. "Activate the tracking device."

The man typed the appropriate command in the computer. A signal on the chip began to flash. "He doesn't have it," the man replied. "The chip is a mile away."

~/^\~

"Guys," Jimmy said quickly over his earpiece. "The chip has a homing device and they just activated it. They'll know Cole doesn't have it!" Jimmy turned to Chuck. "Time to go."

"Wait! Wait!" Chuck replied quickly. "We have to find out what's on that chip."

"I'm always up for doing something stupid but I'm not risking your life on this, Chuck!"

Chuck quickly grabbed a tool kit out of his bag and opened Jimmy's laptop. "Please, just give me two minutes. I can hack it! This is what I know how to do!"

Jimmy quickly looked around. "Two minutes and not a second more!"

"Give me a hand, then."

~/^\~

The woman looked out at Cole and his contact once again. She got out her phone. "It's a setup. Kill him," she ordered.

Cole's contact surreptitiously pulled out a gun.

"Sarah, gun," Carina said in rising fear.

"Everybody hold positions," Sarah ordered.

"Cole could be in danger."

"He's off the grid. We can't be seen here, Miller," Casey hissed.

Carina walked quickly towards Cole. "Carina, get back here!" Sarah whispered harshly.

Carina walked up to the Fulcrum agent's side and brought her gun up into his ribs. "Drop it," she ordered.

The woman in the Rolls Royce walked up to Carina and put a gun into her ribs. "You drop it."

Sarah started towards all of them. "Walker, no!" Casey hissed. "Slade, get Chuck and that chip far from here!"

"Don't move," another Fulcrum agent said to Cole, putting a gun in his back. Carina and Cole were escorted to the limousine.

"Get that chip, whatever it takes," the woman ordered over her phone.

~/^\~

"Now, Chuck!" Jimmy hissed, keeping his voice low to not attract attention in the library.

"Got it," Chuck said. Jimmy's laptop read the data. "Oh, God."

"What?"

"All this surveillance footage, these images. It's all of me!"

Jimmy's eyes widened. "If Fulcrum gets their hands on this, then they'll know you're the Intersect."

"Wait, what's this?" Chuck asked. "It looks like map coordinates."

Jimmy quickly snapped a picture of the document with his smartphone. He then ripped the wires from the chip and hit a pair of buttons on the laptop.

"What are you doing?" Chuck asked.

Jimmy typed feverishly on the keyboard. "You enter the wrong password three times on a CIA-issue laptop, it fries the memory and hard drive." He hit [ENTER] and the laptop fizzled out. "Head for the subway. I'll take the chip and get them to chase me."

"Are you sure?"

"GO!" Jimmy screamed, giving Chuck a shove. Chuck sprinted towards the exits while Jimmy bolted out of the library in the opposite direction.

Jimmy made it outside and began to run down 40th Street towards Times Square. A trio of Fulcrum agents pulled up in front of him. The one in the passenger seat rolled down his window and aimed but Jimmy reached in to nail him in the face with his fist. The agent in the back tried to get out but Jimmy kicked the door closed on him. He then landed a spinning kick at the agent's head. The driver tried to aim his gun but Jimmy grabbed his wrist, slamming it hard against the headrest and forcing him to drop it. The driver managed to get his foot up and kicked Jimmy hard, knocking him down to the sidewalk. He threw the car into drive and got ready to hit the accelerator to run Jimmy over. Jimmy reached behind him to grab a garbage can that was sitting on the sidewalk and slammed it into the front bumper of the car, causing the car's airbag to deploy. The unbelted driver was knocked unconscious. Jimmy got up slowly, took the chip, and threw it to the ground, smashing it with his foot.

He then looked to see a dozen tourists in complete shock at seeing Lance McCall in action.

"Wow, that almost looked real, am I right?" he asked them.

Chuck made it to the subway entrance on 5th Avenue and headed towards the turnstiles. He fumbled about in his pockets for some cash before realizing he needed to get a transit card. He ran over to one of the machines and caught a glimpse of a woman standing there. The same woman who had the stroller in the hotel the previous night and ordered Cole's capture minutes before. He flashed, seeing a Fulcrum file, an ID card with the name of Alexis White, and several images of her torturing various individuals.

"Do…do you have change for a ten?" Chuck nervously asked.

"Chuck Bartowski," Alexis said as two very imposing men moved in behind Chuck. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you better."

 _ **Unknown Location  
March 16, 2016  
2:30 PM EDT**_

"Oh, my God! This is unbearable!"

Cole looked disdainfully at Chuck. He was starting to get the impression Chuck may not have been a bona fide agent based on the screaming and crying he heard from him over the last ten minutes."

"I wish you hadn't done that," Cole said quietly to Carina, who was bound by her hands and hanging from a hook in a similar manner to Chuck and Cole.

"You were in trouble," Carina said, not in any sort of a mood to be questioned by Cole. "We were trying to protect you."

"And you were caught as a result. If they had only gotten me, we had a chance, but what you did put your whole team in danger."

"Don't you dare question my decisions," she spat at him.

"My back is killing me!" Chuck shouted. "My wrists are chafing!"

Cole shook his head. "This is going to get ugly. What level is his pain tolerance?"

Carina sighed. "I'd say about a one out of ten."

"A what? A one?" Chuck was mad. "I'd say I'm at least an eight."

"Chuck, the torture hasn't started yet."

"This is the pre-torture? OK, put me down for a 'one'."

"Did Jimmy destroy the chip?"

"I don't know. When the tracking device activated, he took it and ran to draw them away from me."

"He must have destroyed the chip," Carina concluded. "Had they been able to catch up to him, he'd be here with us."

"We better hope your team finds us fast," Cole said. "We're going to be tortured for information we don't even know."

"I hacked into the chip. I know what's on it."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm on it. Someone knows I'm the Intersect. That's what Fulcrum was after. There were also some map coordinates, but I don't know what they're for."

"Did you memorize them?" Carina asked.

"No, but Jimmy took a picture of it with his smartphone. Hopefully Sarah and Casey found him."

"OK, we can't let Fulcrum ever find this out. No matter what they do to you or us, you cannot tell them."

"But I can't…I can't handle torture!"

"Forget the torture," Cole said. "I'll incite them and get them to kill us quick. I'll get them focused on me and give you two a chance to get out. Worst case, maybe I can delay them enough for your friends to get here."

"Look, Chuck, if the pain becomes unbearable, just pass out," Carina said. "Scare yourself somehow."

Chuck looked at a table just outside of the cage they were in, where an impressive display of pliers, needles, syringes, and a blowtorch lay. "Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard. I can't stand needles."

Alexis walked up to the three. "Glad to see you're all in such a chatty mood," she said with a malevolent smile.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 16, 2016  
2:30 PM EDT**_

Sarah and Casey arrived at the hotel room and immediately got on videoconference with General Beckman.

"General, we have a situation," Casey said in a rush. "Fulcrum has captured Miller, and Cole Barker. And Bartowski and Slade are missing."

"Dear God," Beckman rasped.

"We need satellite recon for the last two hours from any bird over Manhattan. Miller and Cole were taken away in a limousine from MoMA."

"We'll get on it right away." Beckman terminated the link.

The door burst open and Jimmy entered. "Please tell me Chuck is here."

"No," Sarah quickly replied. "What happened?"

"Son of a bitch," Jimmy growled. "The chip started emitting a homing device. I told him to run and I took the chip as far away as I could. It must not have worked."

Sarah's eyes widened in fear. "They must have captured Chuck, too."

"Oh, that ain't the half of it. We also saw what's on the chip. It was Chuck. Someone knows he's the Intersect!"

"WHAT?!" Sarah exclaimed.

Jimmy ran to the computer in the room and started typing away. "We hacked the chip once we saw the homing device activated. There were images and surveillance of Chuck. Almost everything since we first met him. We also saw some map coordinates but we didn't have time to figure out where they were."

"How the hell are we supposed to find him?" Casey snarled. "Fulcrum would have destroyed their phones and comm gear by now."

"Maybe…maybe…" Jimmy kept typing away. "Got him! They're in a warehouse just over the river on 12th. After what happened with Jill throwing out Chuck's watch, I ordered some micro-RFID tags. They're like traceable dust. I threw some onto Chuck before we split up. As long as Fulcrum doesn't scan him, they'll never find them."

Sarah went to the weapons cabinet. "Let's go."

 _ **Unknown Location  
March 16, 2016  
3:00 PM EDT**_

"Stop it! Stop it! I can't take it anymore! No more torture!"

Chuck tolerance of pain had waned quickly. The 'one' rating was clearly generous.

"She's torturing me, idiot," Cole snarled as Alexis hit him again with a cat-o-nine tails.

Alexis turned back to Chuck, who was tied up in a chair watching Cole endure being whipped repeatedly. "What's on that chip, Cole?" Alexis demanded. "Tell me and the pain can end."

Cole remained silent, and Alexis continued to whip him in the back.

"Stop! I can't let you do this to him!" Chuck screamed. "I know what's on the chip! I watched it!"

"No he doesn't!" Cole replied. "He's only Sarah's boyfriend. That's why he hangs around these people."

"One way or another, I'm going to get the truth," Alexis said as she put the cat-o-nine tails down and picked up the blowtorch. "After all, everybody talks. Right, Cole?"

"No, I'm telling you I know what's on that chip!" Chuck cried. "It's me! I'm the Intersect! I'm the one you're looking for."

Alexis turned to face Chuck. "You? All along it was you?"

"Do you REALLY think the CIA would put its entire database of secrets inside his head?" Cole said condescendingly. "He's a pathetic weakling. How could then send him on an assignment? How could he even withstand torture?"

"It's true," Carina replied. "He's just Sarah's boyfriend. He's not a spy and he's not the Intersect. He's just a nice guy Sarah met who's just trying to stick up for us."

"Then who is?" Alexis demanded.

"Me," Cole answered. "I'm the Intersect."

"No he's not!" Chuck countered. "I'm the Intersect. And you know what? I resent the fact that I couldn't stand up to torture." He turned to Alexis. "You know what? Do your worst. You could stick that incredibly long needle in my eye and I still wouldn't tell you anything!"

Alexis looked behind her to see the long needle and syringe on the table. She picked it up. "This needle?" she said with an evil smirk, moving the needle right towards Chuck's left eye. "You want me to put this needle in your eye?"

Chuck started to get light-headed. "Uh, uh, uh, you know, you know, you know, on…on second thought…"

Chuck fell backwards and hit the concrete, completely passed out. Alexis rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Wake him," she ordered one of the agents.

An agent took a bucket of ice-cold water and splashed it all over Chuck's face. He instantly woke up, gasping, spitting out water and shaking his head side-to-side to start breathing again.

"Let's try a different approach," Alexis said. She held the needle to Carina's neck. "Tell me who the Intersect is by three, or I inject Agent Miller with enough ricin into to kill an army. One…two…"

"IT'S ME!" Chuck and Cole shouted at the same time. Carina looked at Cole in shock, surprised with how passionately he said that.

A set of explosions rocked the warehouse. Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy charged inside with automatic weapons and full tactical gear. Several Fulcrum agents reached for their weapons, Jimmy opened fire and took all of them out. Sarah and Casey charged to the back. Sarah stopped to check on Chuck, Carina, and Cole while Casey chased after Alexis.

"Hands! Now!" Casey shouted, having successfully cornered Alexis, who had no means of escape. "Get them up!"

Alexis turned slowly and put her hands into the air.

"Our turn now," Casey said with considerable satisfaction. "We get to find out everything you know about Fulcrum.

"No you won't," Alexis seethed in defiance.

"Trust me, babe. Everyone talks."

"I know."

She took the needle of ricin and injected the entire syringe into her neck.

"No!" Casey shouted but it was too late. Alexis began to convulse and slid to the floor.

"Fulcrum wins," she said as she took her last breath.

Casey gritted his teeth in frustration and walked back in the warehouse to check on the others.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 17, 2016  
4:00 PM EDT**_

Cole packed the last of his things in preparation for his return to London.

"I must say this is the most unorthodox team of agents I've ever encountered," he said. "But I certainly can't argue with the results."

"We'll…take that as a compliment?" Jimmy asked.

"Agent Walker, please extend my thanks to the CIA for the flight back home."

"It's the least we could do," Sarah replied. "I appreciate you looking out for my team."

Cole slung his duffel bag over his shoulder and wheeled his other suitcase to the door. "Chuck, thank you for risking your life for me. Don't ever do it again."

"Don't worry," Chuck replied as they shook hands. "I won't."

"Major Casey, glad to work with you," Cole said as he shook Casey's hand. He did the same with Jimmy. "Agent Slade, a pleasure. Have people always called you Jimmy? Never James?"

"I'd just get teased a lot worse," Jimmy said sadly.

"Quite. Good luck to all of you."

Cole opened the door and took his luggage into the hall. Carina followed and closed the door behind them.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Cole, but you're not exactly the expert on being ruthless either," Carina said.

"Oh, no?" he replied with a raised eyebrow.

Carina smiled. "You don't think I didn't notice how desperate you were to convince that Fulcrum agent you were the Intersect when she had the needle to my neck?"

Cole exhaled and nodded. "Guilty as charged."

Carina wrapped her arms around his neck. "I wouldn't call it a character flaw, ether," she said with a smile before kissing him.

Cole smiled and kissed her back, the two holding each other tightly as they felt a considerable amount of electricity between them.

Carina ran her fingers through his hair. "What you did to help us took a lot of courage, despite how badly this started."

"I think it's safe to say we were able to suffer through it."

"I agree," she purred, giving him another kiss.

"You know; I have a luxurious G550 at my disposal. Perhaps you can convince Sarah to have a few days off. We can fly to Italy, to Fiji, wherever you wish."

Carina grinned. "Tempting. But I still have an asset to protect and a group of close friends who need me."

Cole nodded. "Fair enough. Well, at the risk of making this sound like a Bond movie, _au revoir_ , Carina. I get the feeling we'll meet again."

Cole took her face in his hands and gave one final, passionate kiss. He then grabbed his wheeled suitcase and duffel bag and headed for the elevators.

 _ **Newark Liberty International Airport – Newark, NJ  
March 17, 2016  
7:00 PM EDT**_

Cole sat in the back of the Lincoln Continental, finishing the last of his drink, as the car drove towards the private hangar at the far end of the airport along a back road. It was an adventurous week for him, but he got the result he was looking for, thanks to Sarah's team. And certainly meeting Carina had to be considered the highlight.

"Driver, are we almost there…"

He never finished the sentence as bullets flew through the window, killing the driver. The car careened out of control and crashed into a barrier at the end of a T intersection. Cole was knocked unconscious.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 17, 2016  
10:00 PM EDT**_

Sarah knocked repeatedly on Chuck's door. He bolted out of bed and went to answer it.

"What's wrong?" he asked, a bit bleary-eyed.

"Cole never made his flight," Sarah said in a rush. "He's missing, and the driver who took him to the airport was found dead from a gunshot wound."

Chuck's eyes widened. "Oh, my God. What does that mean?"

Sarah couldn't hide her fright. "Chuck, he knows you're the Intersect. We have to assume he's been captured by Fulcrum. We have to move you to a secured bunker right now and you have to stay there until he can be found. Grab some clothes. Casey and I are going to take you there right now."

"Are you sure about this? I mean, he's a tough guy. Maybe he won't talk."

Sarah exhaled slowly. "Chuck…everyone talks."

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 18, 2016  
12:00 AM EDT**_

Carina sat in her room with her arms folded around herself. She had been captured by terrorist groups a half-dozen times in her career, been in more firefights than she could count, and finding Chuck has led to one perilous situation after another.

None of that compared to the fear she felt at that moment. And the complete helplessness. Concepts that felt so foreign to her before now.

It was borderline laughable. She was regarded as one of the coldest, most ruthless agents the CIA had. She used to turn on people…even Sarah…at the drop of a hat. But those days were long gone. And thanks to Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy, she never once worried for her safety or feared failure because it just didn't happen. She had too much talent for it, and she was part of a team that had too much skill to fail.

But now she felt powerless. She couldn't deny it: Cole got to her. He beat her at her own game. His refusal to desire her made her want him even more. It was practically textbook. And when he went beyond bravery and chivalry to protect Chuck and her when they were captured, it sealed the deal. He could have made it all the way back to London and she would have still had him in her head. But now…

She rose from the bed. She wasn't going to tolerate this feeling of things being out of her control. She went to her closet and put on her tactical gear. She holstered a pair of guns and slung two automatic weapons over her shoulder, making sure she had plenty of ammunition for all of them. She sheathed a pair of knives on thigh holsters and walked to the door. She threw it open and stepped into the hall.

"I expected to see you an hour ago," Jimmy said.

Carina shook her head. "Stay out of this, Jimmy."

"I can't. You know damn well you shouldn't go after Cole like this. Our job is to protect Chuck."

He's in an underground bunker right now! If Fulcrum can get to him through all of that security, then they deserve to have him!"

"You can't do this, Carina. Sarah is already scared to death for Chuck. Do you really think she wants her best friend doing something insane like this?"

"I have to do this."

Jimmy pulled out his gun and aimed it at Carina. "I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head sadly. "I can't let you risk your life like this."

"Either shoot me dead, or get the hell out of my way," Carina commanded in no uncertain terms.

"He's really that important?"

Carina stared at Jimmy for a long moment. She nodded gently. "He's worth all the risk."

"Carina, I can't let you do this…"

Carina looked in fear. Hurting Jimmy was the last thing she wanted to do, but she wasn't going to let him stop her.

He then lowered his gun. "I sure as hell can't let you do this alone."

"No," she replied firmly. "I'm already risking everything over this. I won't let you risk everything."

"Letting you go alone IS risking everything," he said with equal force. "Sarah might get mad at me for not stopping you but she'd hate me forever if something happened to you. And without this team, I have absolutely nothing."

He then gave a little smile. "Besides, if she really wanted to stop you, she would have left Casey behind instead of me. Although I doubt that would have worked, either."

Carina smiled and hugged Jimmy tightly. "Thank you."

"If I feel one tear on my neck right now, you will never hear the end of it," Jimmy warned, which gave Carina a little laugh. "Let's find him."

The two exited the hotel to track down Cole.


	21. They Really Are Badasses

_OK, that took WAY longer than I wanted it to, but it took a lot of time to come up with the general direction for this chapter. As you'll see, it's almost completely off-canon, mainly just keeping the general frame of "Chuck vs the Lethal Weapon" while incorporating elements from other Chuck episodes that I hadn't used yet. Including some more Ellie involvement._

 _I'm still finding it hard to believe this story has more chapters and a higher word count than any story I've done, and I'm nowhere near finished. I really hope people are liking this story. Let me know what works or doesn't work for you in reviews. With all of the non-canon items I put in for this chapter, I don't really know how well it played out. If it didn't, then I should warn you the next chapter will definitely be off-canon, even though it is based on two of the episodes from the show. I don't want to give away which episodes, as that would spoil it. But I will certainly try to get it out faster because it'll prove to be a very interesting read. Not to mention, this chapter is peppered with hints as to what's next. BTW, a big shout-out to_ _Marc Vun Kannon again for some suggestions for the story. Domo arigato. In a gadda da-vida._

 _ **WARNING** : definite F-bombs in this chapter, including two with very specific Oedipal references. Just alerting you now. Of course, it'll take you all of three seconds to catch the reference. I couldn't resist. You know me and my meta-references. :-D_

 _As always the parts from the show remain the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And again, PLEASE review._

 _Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **NSA Holding Facility – Union City, NJ  
March 17, 2016  
10:00 PM EDT**_

"Ellie?"

"Chuck, how are you? How's New York?"

"It's great. I wish I could see more of it, though. We're doing a lot of work here and I'm just buried right now."

Sarah made a face at Chuck as he talked to Ellie, and he grinned back. It didn't take much effort to reprogram one of the lines in the secured bunker to imitate the ESN of Chuck's smartphone to make Ellie think he was calling from that. Of course, the bunker was designed to jam any signal in or out, so this was the only way Chuck could contact his sister. Casey objected at first, but Sarah thought it would be best to make everyone think there weren't any problems. Besides, anybody who got remanded to a secured government facility and could still keep a smile on their face deserved a break.

"Hey, even you have to admit it beats trying to deal with irate customers or keeping Jeff and Lester from destroying the store."

"Good point, sis. I do forget I could still be doing that sometimes."

"How is…everything else…going?"

"What do you mean?" Chuck asked her.

"Well, I mean…you know…"

"I know what you meant. I was just trying to make you sweat."

"Ha ha. Very funny, Chuck," Ellie said with not a little annoyance.

"Actually, Sarah and I had a long talk last night. She said how sorry she was and thought it was silly for her to let the press dictate who she liked and who she could be seen with. And…well…"

"Oh my God!" If someone was listening in on the conversation, Chuck would have to apologize to them for having their hearing destroyed by Ellie. "I am so glad! You two are…you two should be together!"

"Sarah said as much. It's almost as if someone told her to just ignore everybody else and do what she wanted to do."

"Oh, I am so glad she did that."

"Ellie…she told me all about your conversation with her last week."

That stopped Ellie in her tracks. "Chuck…I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure…"

"It's fine. If you didn't give her that talk, I'm sure you would have given it to me."

"But seriously, Chuck, I'm really happy you two are back together."

"OK, but don't say anything. I don't want anything leaking out. They'll start filming us being together again and all will be right with the world."

Sarah looked down at the ground. She hoped Chuck was right and not just playing up the optimism for his sister. But they did not have a clue where Cole was right now, and she couldn't shake the fear Chuck might spend the rest of his life in a room like this.

"I won't, I promise. But only if you get back here soon."

"What's wrong?"

"Devon's parents are here."

"Really? The Very Awesomes are there?"

"Yes, and they're driving me up the wall! Two perfect parents who raised three perfect boys in a perfect house in Connecticut! They've planned the entire wedding already! They've registered us at the Buy More! I mean, who knew I needed a vacuum sealer? Apparently, I should be ready in case the Chief of Surgery comes over with her husband for salmon kabobs and…voila! Saturday's party turns into Sunday's picnic!"

"Oh, that bad, huh."

"Would you like to hear what Woody said about our new camcorder and the honeymoon?"

Chuck visibly shuddered. "Not even a little? And wait, wait…Woody?"

"Yes. Devon's parents are Honey and Woody. And they keep badgering me for details about you. They've seen you on TV with the cast and want to know everything. You better be careful: they may start planning your wedding, too!"

Both Chuck's and Sarah's eyes widened at that. "I'll...try to get back as soon as I can, sis."

Ellie exhaled. "I'm sorry, Chuck. I didn't mean to throw all of that at you. It's just hard to handle the Awesome family alone like this. Try to have some fun in New York. Love you."

"Love you too, sis. Bye." Chuck hung up the phone and he slumped onto the desk. "Please tell me I'm not lying, Sarah."

"I really hope not," she replied gently. "We're going to do everything we can to find Cole and bring him back."

Chuck nodded weakly. She moved her chair closer to him and took his hand. "I wish it had never come to this. The last thing I wanted is for you to be down here under lock and key. And I hope you're right that Cole is tough enough to not confess who you are. But you are too valuable to our country and right now we can't guarantee Fulcrum won't find out about you. Until we know for certain, this is what we have to do."

She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "But we'll do it together. I'll be here with you for as long as it takes. And we'll get you back to Ellie, back to your family."

Chuck raised his head and looked at Sarah. Again he could feel that same calm, that same confidence in her he felt on the beach that morning so many months ago. That calm and confidence that always made him feel safe, like she would always protect him and get him through this. Given the roller coaster ride the five of them had been on since the day they met, he had complete faith in Sarah to get him through this as well.

"Thanks," he replied, giving her hand a squeeze.

 _ **Newark Liberty International Airport – Newark, NJ  
March 18, 2016  
1:00 AM EDT**_

Carina and Jimmy drove to the site of the car crash where Cole was captured. A flash of their FBI badges…which each member of the team carried to get into crime scenes and other locations easily…at the on-site officer in charge and they began to look over the car.

Carina reached down in the floorboards where the driver was and picked up a shell casing. "Glock 21's," she said. "Must be what they used to shoot the driver. Very popular with Fulcrum agents if the intel is correct."

Jimmy nodded in agreement and pointed to the back door on the driver's side. "All airbags deployed, and the agents cut the curtain on the left to pull Cole out. But to where?"

Carina shined her flashlight along the ground. "No sign of tire tracks. Nothing fresh, anyway."

Jimmy pulled out a pair of infrared binoculars and scanned the area. "There," he said, pointing into the fields behind the road. "They dragged him through the grass and put him in a car on that utility road."

Jimmy went to the computer to check satellite recon from the approximate time Cole was taken six hours earlier. "Dammit. They put him into a van of some sorts, but the cloud cover meant it was too dark before sunset. There's no way to determine where they went."

"We have to find him," Carina said, a small amount of fear creeping into her voice.

Jimmy exhaled in frustration. "We don't have any way of tracking him, Carina. They could have stuck him on a plane and had him almost anywhere by now."

"No, I can't accept that. Come on! You're the brains of our organization. Think of something!"

"I don't know what to tell you! I got lucky once dousing Chuck with that RFID dust but I can't…" Jimmy froze.

"What?" Carina demanded.

Jimmy quickly switched programs on his laptop. "Oh, tell me I got lucky again."

He quickly programmed the satellite recon program to pick up the RFID signal Chuck had on him. The laptop pinged and a marker began to flash on a map of the area. "I'm still picking up some of the RFID tags. It's weak, but it's there."

Carina pointed at the monitor. "Wait, that's not where Chuck is right now."

Jimmy shook his head and grinned. "No he's not. We can't track him with satellite while he's in the bunker."

Carina's eyes widened. "He shook hands with Cole! Some of the dust must have gotten on him!"

"Bingo!"

"Let's go!"

Carina and Jimmy left the crime scene in a hurry.

 _ **NSA Holding Facility – Union City, NJ  
March 18, 2016  
12:30 AM EDT**_

Chuck sat on the bed in his room. Despite Sarah's reassurances earlier, he couldn't sleep. At least the NSA was kind enough to give him some real estate, leaving the guards several feet down the hallways, and gave him a computer to use. He thought about the last few weeks, about Jill, about stopping Fulcrum, and about the hurt he put Sarah through just so he could complete the mission. He thought about his capture by Alexis White and how Cole and Carina tried to protect him. And that moment with Sarah before Beckman…

The computer in front of him beeped. The screen saver that had been displayed on the monitor went blank, and Chuck looked on in confusion.

The screen changed. _I know who you are. I know your secret._

Chuck's eyes widened. If someone was playing a practical joke on him, it was in bad taste. Even Jeff and Lester would have thought it was in bad taste.

He looked up. "OK, whoever is doing this, very cute," Chuck said to whatever camera or microphone was spying on him.

 _I am not joking._

Chuck stared at the monitor. "You can hear me?" he whispered in fear.

 _You are the Intersect._

Chuck could feel himself shaking. This clearly wasn't a joke.

 _We have to meet._

"Why?"

 _Because I'm Orion._

"But how do we meet? I'm locked up!"

 _Not for long. Your team is trying to free Cole Barker right now and they will be successful. They will also find someone there who can lead you to me._

Chuck's mind was racing. Sarah and Casey were with him. How could the team…

Suddenly he nodded and smiled. "Carina went to rescue Cole because she likes him and must have taken Jimmy with her," Chuck concluded.

 _This computer is not secure. I will contact you once I know you are out of trouble. Tell no one of this._

"No, wait. Wait! I have so many questions…" The text on the screen disappeared and the screen saver returned.

Chuck fell back to his bed and stared at the monitor. He began to wish this really was a joke. Orion found him? And bypassed the government's best security to talk to him? And how in the hell did he know Carina and Jimmy were rescuing Cole right now? He wanted to believe this was Orion. If it was, perhaps he knew how to get the Intersect out. But why did Orion not want him to tell anybody? The CIA he could understand but not Sarah, not the team?

He put on a robe and went down the hallway. He hoped he was making the right decision. At the very least, Sarah deserved to know Carina and Jimmy were in great danger. At least he thought they were. Orion sounded a lot more confident about their success than he did.

 _ **Elizabeth, NJ  
March 18, 2016  
1:00 AM EDT**_

Carina and Jimmy pulled up along the road outside the building where Cole was being kept. They checked their weapons and tactical gear and snuck along the side of the building. Jimmy flipped through his tablet computer to get a schematic of the building.

"Lots of places he could be in there," he said.

"Can we get a peek inside?" Carina asked.

Jimmy reached into his backpack and took out a mini-drone, which was about one-eighth the size of some of the best drones on the market. "Way ahead of you." He linked his tablet to the mini-drone's camera. He accessed the appropriate program and threw the mini-drone into the window twenty feet above them. The mini-drone's soundproof propellers came to life and the unit glided surreptitiously through the building.

"Hopefully that little guy can pinpoint Cole's exact location," Carina said, watching the screen over Jimmy's shoulder.

"Here we go," Jimmy said a few moments later as he steered the mini-drone through the building. "The mini-drone is getting a ping near the northeast corner."

The two walked to that end of the building. Jimmy handed Carina the tablet while he used an electronic card device to access the door lock.

"Wait, put on the mini-drone's heat sensors," Carina said. Jimmy adjusted the program as she requested. "I count ten others near there. The two closest to Cole must be torturing him and the others are guarding the area."

"Thankfully, the mini-drone went to the Q School of gadgetry." He got the door unlocked and took the tablet computer. "Ready to take them out?"

Carina readied her guns. "Let's do this."

Jimmy punched a series of commands on the tablet. Inside, the mini-drone's propellers guided it close to the ground, sneaking up to the guards in front of the door to the room where Cole was being kept.

"In three…two…one…now!" Jimmy said. He hit a button on the tablet and the mini-drone accelerated fast into the air. A pair of tear gas canisters exploding in the faces of the guards. Carina and Jimmy charged in guns blazing, taking out four of the guards right away. Carina readied herself to fire at the lock to the door when four more guards came at them. Jimmy grabbed a handrail and kicked into the air, knocking two of them out. Carina threw a hard elbow at one, who staggered forward right into a roundhouse by Jimmy. Carina spun and landed a spinning kick at the last one, taking them out.

Carina turned back to the door and shielded her face, firing several shots at the lock. Jimmy wrenched the door open and Carina charged inside to see a bloodied and dazed Cole. One of the two interrogators inside reached for their weapon but Carina landed a vertical kick at that person. The other one managed to hit an alarm bell before Jimmy came at him and took him out with a brutal hook.

Carina went around and grabbed Cole's face tightly, shaking it back and forth. "Cole? Cole? Can you hear me?"

Cole's eyes fluttered for a few seconds as he tried to refocus himself. He finally locked eyes with her. "You look terrible," he said with a hint of a smile.

"You're a riot," Carina growled, giving him a hard kiss on the lips while Jimmy reached behind him and cut the handcuff chain.

A guard got to the door and aimed his gun at Carina. Cole jumped up, swung around Carina, pulled the gun out of her waistband, and drilled the man with a single shot.

Carina looked at the dead agent she never saw in surprise. "Hey, we're supposed be doing the rescuing," she said in mild irritation.

"And I get to miss out on all the fun?" Cole teased.

"We better get moving," Jimmy said. "We're going to have a crapload of Stormtroopers on us any second."

"Wait, we have a problem," Cole said quickly. "I overheard them talking. There's another prisoner here. A scientist of some sort."

Carina and Jimmy looked at each other. "Orion?" Carina asked.

"I'm not sure. They never said the man's name," Cole replied.

"Look out!" Jimmy yelled as a foursome of agents came charging in. Carina swung into the air off the back of Cole's chair to land a hard kick at the first agent as Jimmy sent a roundhouse into the face of another agent. One agent managed to grab Cole from behind, but he snapped his head back and nailed the man in the face. He spun and flipped him to the ground, giving him a kick to the head to finish him off. The last one charged at Carina and Cole only to be met by a clothesline by Jimmy.

Cole grabbed two of the weapons off of the guards. "Let's go."

Carina, Jimmy, and Cole walked out into the hallway with weapons at the ready. They had to duck down immediately as a half-dozen agents opened fire from down the hallway they used to get to Cole. They crawled into a set of doorways for cover as they returned fire.

"Can't get out that way," Carina said.

"Great, you cut us off from our only escape route," Cole seethed.

"Maybe you'd should get back in your cell, your Highness."

"Enough you two," Jimmy growled. "And quit copying my schtick! At least I can get the quotes right!"

His tablet computer began to beep incessantly. He fell back as Carina and Cole continued to return fire. A map appeared on his tablet with a pathway drawn to another location in the building one floor below.

"When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?" Cole asked heatedly.

"He's the brains, sweetheart!" Carina shot back, pointing at Jimmy.

Jimmy shook his head in frustration. "I'm gettin' too old for this shit," he muttered in a deep funk.

Another marker beeped on Jimmy's tablet, this time located right behind them. Jimmy looked back at the electronic panel on the wall. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Cover me!" he yelled and ran back to the panel, ripping it open and tearing several wires. "Whoever this guy is we're trying to rescue, he's one floor underneath us."

Carina looked back to see what Jimmy was doing. She then found a large vent near the floor and shot out the clips keeping the grill over it. She tossed the grill away.

"Now, Jimmy!" Carina yelled. Jimmy crossed the wires and activated the halon system inside the building. CO2 began to pour from the ceiling. Glass containment doors started to drop throughout the hallway.

Jimmy grabbed Cole and shoved him towards the open vent. "Into the garbage chute, flyboy!"

Cole dove into the vent, followed by Carina. Jimmy grabbed his tablet computer and went through the vent as well. The three came out of the vent and fell onto the floor on top of each other.

"Ugh, you go first next time, mate," Cole groaned from underneath Jimmy. "It's like having an anvil land on you."

"How did you know to do all of that?" Carina asked.

"I have no clue," Jimmy replied, holding up his tablet computer. "I keep getting data downloaded to this damn thing! It's like someone on the outside wants us to escape and take this prisoner with us!"

"This must be Orion they have," Cole said. "Or someone who can lead us to Orion."

They ran down the hall to the location Jimmy's tablet computer indicated.

 _ **NSA Holding Facility – Union City, NJ  
March 18, 2016  
1:00 AM EDT**_

Chuck knocked on Sarah's door. "What's wrong?" Sarah asked.

Chuck hesitated for a moment, looked up at the ceiling, and then back and forth at the guards who accompanied him down the hallways to Sarah's room.

"Give us a few minutes, please," Sarah told the guards as she took Chuck's hand and pulled him into her room.

Chuck pointed to the ceiling. "Is it OK…" he began to whisper.

Sarah nodded. "My room isn't monitored."

Chuck sat down pensively. "Sarah…I…I don't know if I should say anything. And if I do, I know I don't want the CIA to know. But I had to tell you because you deserved to know…know about…"

"What's going on, Chuck?"

Chuck took a deep breath. "I talked to Orion."

"What?" Sarah couldn't believe it. "How did you find Orion?"

"Actually, he found me. He hacked into the computer in my room. He knew who I was. Sarah…he knows I'm the Intersect."

"How?"

"I have no idea! He wants to meet with me! And he told me not to tell anyone."

"Not even me?"

"I…I guess. I don't know. But I thought I had to tell you. He also said Cole is about to be rescued, so he'll call me again once I'm out of here."

"How did he know…" Sarah figured it out and was suddenly breathing fire. "Carina went to rescue him. And I'll just bet Jimmy didn't stop her or she even talked him into helping her." She slammed her fist against the wall. "If those two make it out alive, I'm going to kill them!"

"Wait, wait, Sarah," Chuck said gently, putting a hand up to stop her. "Orion knew this, too, and he was confident they were going to be successful. I mean, if he can hack a computer in a secured government base, who's to say he couldn't help them find Cole?"

"Those two shouldn't have gone on a rescue mission," Sarah growled. "Carina's been walking around like a lovesick teenager ever since we met Cole! What the hell was she thinking?"

Chuck tried not to laugh but the grin on his face gave him away. "OK, fine," Sarah huffed. "Pot…kettle, I get it. But she is still putting herself in great danger. And Jimmy should have stopped her."

"And she would have hated him for the rest of her life if he did," Chuck said gently. "Maybe he figured you'll hate him less for helping her."

Sarah sat back and shook her head. Chuck was right. Given the risks she had taken for Chuck since they met and the reasons why, she had no right to crucify Carina for trying to rescue Cole. And there was little doubt Jimmy decided protecting Carina was a lesser evil than stopping her entirely. But the thought of two of her best friends risking their lives like this still filled her with fear. She hoped like hell Chuck's theory was right and Orion would be able to help them.

"There's nothing we can do for them," Sarah said quietly.

Chuck stared at her. "You…you can't…"

"If even Casey or I try to go after them, it'll tip off the entire agency and they'll know you were contacted. We'll be lucky if you get to stay with us as it is. But as far as the CIA is concerned, Carina and Jimmy just went rogue, even if it was for a good reason. Let's hope they succeed."

Chuck nodded, but he started to feel the same fear Sarah did.

 _ **Elizabeth, NJ  
March 18, 2016  
1:20 AM EDT**_

Carina, Jimmy, and Cole quickly ran down the hall to the source of the ping on Jimmy's tablet computer. They found a cell with an older gentleman sleeping in it.

"Watch the hallway," Jimmy said as he kneeled down to work on the lock. "It'll take me a moment to unlock…"

Suddenly the door opened. "…or it'll just open on its own. That works for me."

Cole pulled the door open and Carina went inside. She shook the man awake.

"Huh? What?" the man said as he stirred awake.

"We're going to get you out of here," Carina told him, gently pulling him up.

"Thank you. But you…aren't you…"

"Yes, I'll explain later…" Carina gestured for the man to give his name.

"Howard…Dr. Howard Busgang," the doctor said quickly. "Is this part of the show?"

"Later, Doctor."

The four began to move down the hall. Cole looked behind him and caught a glimpse of a Fulcrum agent raising their weapon.

"Get down!" he shouted, diving forward to tackle the three to the ground. He immediately rolled onto his back and opened fire, hitting the agent.

Everybody got back up. "Cole, get the Doc out of here. Come on, Jimmy," Carina said quickly as she reloaded.

"I got this," Cole countered as more agents made their way down the stairwells. "Protect the doctor, you two."

"Hey, we just busted our asses to rescue you and now you want to go back in!?"

"Someone has to take these wankers out!"

"Oh, shut up, both of you!" Jimmy yelled, shoving Carina, Cole, and Busgang towards the door. "Besides, doing the crazy shit is MY job!"

The three of them ran up the stairwell and made it upstairs. "Are you sure this isn't from the show?" Busgang asked in confusion. "The arguing certainly sounds like it."

Jimmy sprinted down the hallway, opening fire with a pair of Heckler & Koch automatic rifles. The four agents entering through the stairwell went down. Jimmy slid along the floor to get behind a doorway as more agents came in. He pulled out a flashbang and whipped it in the direction of the stairwell as more agents tried to get around their fallen comrades. He covered his eyes as the flashbang went off, blinding the agents in the stairwell. He ran back in the direction of the stairwell where Carina, Cole, and Busgang exited.

Carina and Cole peeked out of the exit, shielding Busgang, and moved carefully towards the car Carina and Jimmy drove to the building.

"Where the hell is Jimmy?" Carina said with considerable worry.

"We have to get Busgang out of here," Cole said quickly. "Once he's safe, we'll come back for Slade."

"No! I'm not leaving him behind! He took a big risk coming with me. I'm not just going to abandon him!"

"After you just got through insisting we get out of here? We can't let them find us. He's a tough guy; he can hold out for a few minutes."

"Hey, I'm the one doing the rescuing here, not you!"

"Well, it wouldn't be a bloody good rescue if we end up dead, would it!"

Carina and Cole didn't see the agent from around the corner throw a grenade in their direction.

"MOVE!" Jimmy screamed as he flew out of the building. Carina and Cole turned and saw the grenade lying near them. They dove, tackling Busgang to the ground as Jimmy ran at the grenade and punted it. The grenade went off, launching him through the air. He flew over the car and landed hard on a top of a concrete wall behind the car, falling off of it and twenty feet to the ground.

The three got up. "Jimmy!" Carina cried as she ran to him with Cole right on her heels. Jimmy struggled to get up.

"Jesus, mate, your shoulder is separated," Cole said in shock.

Jimmy stared at him in complete derangement. He continued to stagger around holding his separated shoulder. He started to walk to the back of the car.

Carina's eyes widened. "Jimmy, no! Don't…"

"AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Jimmy roared as he rammed his shoulder into the car's frame, popping his shoulder back into place. He continued to stagger around with a look that would make Charles Manson soil himself.

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I have HAD IT with these motherfuckin' relationships on this motherfuckin' team!"

Everybody practically sprinted to the car and got in, not even daring to say a word. Jimmy slid into the driver's seat.

"Everybody strap in!" Jimmy ordered as he reloaded his Heckler & Koch. "I'm about to open some fuckin' windows!"

He floored it towards the access road to leave. A set of four cars blocked the way. Jimmy sprayed the area with the automatic rifle without even slowing down. He crashed straight through the cars, and the four drove away.

 _ **NSA Holding Facility – Union City, NJ  
March 18, 2016  
1:45 AM EDT**_

Casey walked down the hallway to Sarah's room and knocked loudly on the door, thinking she was asleep. He was taken by surprise when she opened the door right away.

"What is it?" Sarah asked.

"Just got word from…" he looked behind Sarah to see Chuck in the room as well. "Did I miss something? Hopefully?"

"Tell me what's going on," Sarah replied in less-than-mild irritation.

"Just heard back from Miller and Slade. They retrieved Agent Barker. He insists he didn't give up any intel. They also found a Dr. Howard Busgang that Fulcrum was holding. He's an ex-DARPA scientist. Government's been looking for him for some time. They thought he went off the grid on his own, but clearly that's not what happened."

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. "Where are they?"

"Back at the hotel. We're free to leave."

"OK, we'll be there in a few minutes."

Casey walked back to his room to gather his things. Sarah turned back to Chuck. She looked ready to say something but the smile on Chuck's face stopped her.

"You're not even going to let me be mad at them for five seconds?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Can you blame me? I only had to stay here for four hours thanks to them."

"You know, most team leads would recommend disciplinary action for those two."

"But you're not most team leads. And I can't tell you how glad I am of that."

Sarah looked down at the ground and a small smile came to her face. She may not have been like most team leads, but Chuck was unquestionably not like any asset she had ever met. And she never felt more fortunate about it.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 18, 2016  
2:30 AM EDT**_

Carina knocked on the door to Cole's room. She had changed out of her tactical gear into something far more comfortable.

"Hello," Cole said, sporting several bandages applied to him by a medic that stopped by the hotel to check on Dr. Busgang, Jimmy, and him.

"I…just wanted to see how you were doing," Carina timidly started.

"I am well. At least better than a few hours ago. I certainly can't complain about the care your people provided. But no turndown service for the bed, sadly. Could you talk to someone about that?"

Carina smiled. She shifted nervously back and forth. "About earlier…the way I yelled at you…"

Cole put a finger to her lips to quiet her. He then took her face in his hands and gently pulled her to him. He gave her a gentle kiss, which she made less and less gentle as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Don't even think for one moment you did anything wrong tonight. I am so grateful you risked your life to find me." He kissed her again. "How did Sarah take it when she found out you went after me?"

Carina shook her head and smiled. "She was angry…for the briefest of moments. But we've been together longer than either of us will care to admit. What happened tonight…ten years ago, I wouldn't have even considered doing that. But things are different now, and Sarah is a big reason why they're different. All of them…Sarah, John, Jimmy…they've made me a different person. And so has Chuck."

Cole nodded. "I must concede a bit of jealousy. I've spent fifteen years working on my own. At best, I've had a short-term partner here and there, but none of them lasted. I've even had to bury a few of them. But the way the five of you operate…it is very impressive."

He gently caressed her cheek. "Just like you were tonight. And if you ask me, this version of Carina Miller sounds a lot better than the old one."

Carina ran her fingers through the back of Cole's hair, gripping him tightly as she drew him in for a passionate kiss. They stepped into Cole's room and closed the door, their lips never breaking contact.

~/^\~

Sarah knocked on the door to Jimmy's room. He opened it with a none-too-pleased expression on his face. He was bandaged even more than Cole was.

"You couldn't wait until morning to tear me a new one about tonight?" he grumbled in exasperation.

"You don't really think I would do that after you took a grenade to the face," Sarah said as she glared at him. "Carina told me what happened. You think I would be mad at you when you kept Carina safe, protected Chuck's identity, and almost got blown up to save everybody?"

"In all fairness, the grenade was at least ten feet away…"

Sarah smacked him upside the head. "OK, NOW I'm mad!"

"Ow," Jimmy muttered in pain, holding the back of his head. "I could have done without the smack upside the head."

"You deserved it for that. That's worse than those stupid cracks you always make about yourself! You can't even stop for two seconds and acknowledge what you did tonight was incredibly heroic?"

"Sarah, she was going to go after Cole one way or another. It wasn't about being heroic; I was trying to minimize the damage. Either I tie her to a chair and have her hate me forever or let her go on her own and get killed. Neither option sounded good, so I went with option three. Besides, you said it yourself: that's what we do. One of us gets in trouble, the others have their back. Carina's saved my ass before. Yours, too."

"Sarah nodded. "I know. And I have no right to get judgmental with her over this." She gave a little chuckle. "This wasn't anything like I expected this mission to be. Not even close. Everything has changed. Case reunites with his old lover; Carina is attracted to what is basically her male counterpart. I…meet Chuck…"

"…I get injured every time there's some relationship angst," Jimmy finished for her, which gave her a laugh. "I better not ask for some woman's phone number. I'm liable to get shot."

Sarah grinned. "You may be right. But you better watch it. Sooner or later, someone is going to figure out how good of a person you are and be willing to put up with all of those annoying quirks you have. They'll get you whether you want them to or not."

She hugged Jimmy tightly. "Thank you for protecting Carina," she said quietly into his ear. "And thank you for protecting Chuck."

"No problem, kiddo."

Sarah went to the door and exited Jimmy's room, heading back to her hotel room.

 _ **Hilton Club Hotel – New York, NY  
March 18, 2016  
9:00 AM EDT**_

Chuck and Sarah walked into the small conference room on the first floor of the hotel. It was buried in the back of the hotel and took a considerable walk to get to it, but that insured few-to-no people would bother them. An agent stood outside the doors to make sure that happened.

"Chuck confirmed that Dr. Busgang is Perseus, who was part of the original design team for the Intersect," Sarah said to begin the meeting. "Apparently a Fulcrum agent made contact with him a week ago and started asking questions that made the doctor suspicious. When he tried to stall the agent, they kidnapped him. He told us Fulcrum was trying to put him to work building an Intersect for them."

"I assume he didn't get very far?" Carina asked.

Chuck shook his head. "The place where you rescued him had a lot of technology to do the job, but they only kidnapped him a few days ago. Getting Cole back was a double-win for you," he said with a smile.

"They're moving Dr. Busgang to a secured location as we speak," Sarah continued. "He hid his research in the archives at the New York Public Library. We have to find it quickly so Fulcrum doesn't get their hands on it."

"Tomorrow night should work." Casey said. "There's a black tie charity event going on. Barker and I can sneak into the archives to locate the data while the four of you keep everyone distracted upstairs."

Jimmy nodded. "Good idea. We've been in the spotlight all week. If they see Chuck and Sarah reunited, it'll be the highlight of the evening."

"But doesn't he know about Orion?" Cole asked.

"Yes, but he doesn't know Chuck's been contacted by Orion," Sarah replied. "In fact, only the six of us know that. And we didn't tell Busgang Chuck is an Intersect. That's the best thing we can do right now."

"Does the CIA know anything?" Carina asked.

"After you returned with Cole last night, they raided the building where he was kept and discovered a massive inventory of computers, servers, and networking equipment, all from Roark Instruments," Chuck said. "Incredibly advanced. Think next-NEXT generation. It was like a nerd's dream come true."

"The CIA thinks Ted Roark is in bed with Fulcrum?" Jimmy asked.

"When we get back to L.A., that will be what we have to find out," Sarah answered. "But for now, let's concentrate on the Library."

 _ **New York Public Library – Mid-Manhattan Branch  
March 19, 2016  
8:00 PM EDT**_

Not for the first time, not even for the hundredth time, Chuck understood why someone may not want to dream about being famous in Hollywood.

He watched from the limousine as it waited in line to let its passengers out. He saw famous stars, famous athletes, he saw political figures, and he saw some of the giants in the corporate world exit their vehicles and walk up the stairs into the library. Then it was time for Carina, Jimmy, Sarah, and him to step out of their vehicle.

When Sarah exited the vehicle in a stunning silver gown and reached in to pull Chuck out, the crowd couldn't have roared more if they were in Times Square and it just struck midnight on New Year's Eve. This is what the crowd came to see: the resurgence of 'Charah'. Chuck was on the brink of hyperventilation at the reaction from the huge crowd, but Sarah gave his hand a gentle squeeze to calm him. He remembered to smile broadly as Sarah told him earlier and make it look like he was overjoyed they were reunited. He wasn't sure if he could pull it off, but Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy all reminded him the more he could sell it, the easier he'd make Casey's and Cole's job down in the archives tonight.

They ascended the stairs to screaming and cheering, a significant number of women saying how hot Chuck looked in his tuxedo, which didn't exactly cure him of his nervousness. Carina had a big smile on her face as she walked up the stairs on Jimmy's arm wearing a sultry red dress sure to get the crowd talking. Chuck suspected her smile tonight was authentic instead of the ones she typically put on for the paparazzi. Less than two days ago, she was in the fight of her life trying to bring Cole back. Chuck couldn't help but smile at all of the makeup they had to put on Jimmy to minimize the fact a grenade threw him through the air, something Casey insisted on giving him grief about all afternoon. But if Carina had any disappointment about not being able to attend this party with Cole, hanging onto the guy that saved their lives was certainly a decent consolation prize.

The four entered the event and started to interact with the crowd.

~/^\~

Casey and Cole bypassed the alarm for the maintenance entrance to the library and immediately went downstairs.

"Radio check," Casey said in to his comms.

"Loud and clear, Rimmer," Jimmy replied. "And is Lister with you?"

"Check, Jimmy," Cole replied.

"Anyway, all's quiet upstairs," Jimmy said. "That is, apart from the crowds swarming Chuck and Sarah. We better make this fast or we'll never get out of here tonight."

"Got it," Casey said. Cole and he began to walk through the stacks of old, uncategorized books that lay throughout the basement. They had a general area where the data would be found, but it would still take effort.

"So you're usually in the van while they get to play dress-up?" Cole asked Casey.

"I don't mind it," Casey said. "I hate crowds."

"But you still appear on the TV show?"

"That's just a cover. It's not really my style, but they figured put me in the show rather than some civilian who we'd also have to keep the secret from."

Casey shook his head and gave a little grunt of amusement. "Don't tell the others, but every now and again doing the show is fun. Not when I have to do actual acting like that one where the whole episode was about Duke, but throwing out those insults at Jill Garrett and Lance McCall can make the day go faster."

Cole laughed. "I imagine so."

"Still, I can't complain…much. I was Special Forces for almost two decades before I was put on Sarah's team. She's a good leader, best damn partner I've ever had. She keeps Miller and Slade in line somehow. If I led the team, I probably would have shot them by now."

"I was going to ask about that. You've been with the government the longest and Sarah leads the team?"

Casey nodded. "She's good at dealing with people. Carina used to break the rules all the time, but Sarah and she had been friends from way back, so Sarah's the one person who could keep Carina in line. As for Slade, what a goddamn mess he was when they put him on the team. The complete opposite of Lance McCall. But Sarah brought him along, too. We raided a village controlled by al Qaeda by ourselves to free a few hundred civilians. He's annoying as hell but he's the one you want with you in a firefight."

"As I've discovered. And Chuck?"

Casey went through a couple of stacks of books looking for the intel. "He is worse than Slade in the annoying department. That ridiculous optimism, that obsessiveness with being everyone's friend. But we've never guarded a better asset. Kid's got guts, let me tell you. Smart as hell. And what he's done for everyone…even I get what Walker sees in the nerd."

"Wait a moment," Cole said. He found a book that appeared to have less dust on it than the rest of the ones on the shelf. He switched on his earpiece. "Chuck, take out your smartphone and have a look at this."

Chuck moved away from the crowd and turned on his smartphone. He saw the picture of the pages Cole was scanning for him. He began to flash, seeing images of the Lincoln Memorial, past presidents, and a file folder. And he clearly saw the name "Orion."

"That's…that's the file, Cole," Chuck said quickly. "Let me…"

Casey and Cole heard nothing but static in their earpieces. Sarah turned quickly to see a man behind Chuck. She started to approach him when another man came up behind her and put a gun in her back.

"Let's move," the man said, pushing her next to Chuck. "Find Miller and Slade," the man ordered a half-dozen agents behind him. Chuck turned to flash and see a file on the man who found him, revealing him to be a Fulcrum agent inside the government, Arthur Duncan. Duncan and his partner led Chuck and Sarah downstairs. They walked through the stacks.

"Major Casey! Agent Barker!" Duncan called out. "Thank you for your assistance in helping us find Perseus' files."

Six more agents came downstairs as Chuck and Sarah were stopped across from Casey and Cole.

"It's you," Cole said. "You were in charge of grabbing him and torturing me."

"Shame I didn't have more time," Duncan replied. "We had people in D.C. who tried to get Dr. Busgang back. However, his bodyguards wouldn't go down without a fight. Nor did he. So without Busgang, we had to wait until you found his files. I must give you credit; Fulcrum didn't think you'd only need a day."

Duncan cocked his gun and put it to Sarah's temple. "Now I'm sure, Agent Barker, you don't want me to shoot this lady, so I recommend handing over the intel."

"Why should I hand the intel over to you when you're going to kill her anyway?" Cole asked.

"Because Fulcrum won't stop with her. Then it will be Major Casey, then Agents Miller and Slade…if they're not dead already…and then we'll torture and kill Chuck. And then you'll be last. And the worst part for you? We'll still get the intel."

Chuck looked back and forth in fear at the agents surrounding the four. Casey looked ready to kill.

The lights went off throughout the archives. Sarah pushed Chuck to the ground as Cole spun and grabbed Duncan's gun, pistol-whipping him unconscious. Casey leaped forward and grabbed the two agents who were behind Chuck and Sarah, ramming their heads together. Sarah leaped up as the lights came back on, delivering a spinning kick at another agent. Cole pushed himself off of the shelves to scissor kick two more agents down as Sarah grabbed a large book and smashed it across the face of another agent. Behind Sarah, the last agent took aim.

He was knocked out by an encyclopedia delivered to the back of his head by Chuck.

Chuck looked at the volume in his hand. "K…for kicked your ass!" he shouted in triumph.

Casey rolled his eyes "Shut up," he said in disgust as he disabled the jamming device Agent Duncan had on his person. "Miller, Slade, report," he said quickly.

"Uh, we're a little busy right now," Jimmy replied. "We have people trying to kill us."

"We got this," Casey replied. "Sarah, get Chuck and the intel to the limo."

Chuck grabbed the intel and ran for the back exit with Sarah. Casey and Cole went to locate Carina and Jimmy.

~/^\~

Carina and Jimmy ran down the back hallway of the library with six agents in hot pursuit.

"Can I have ONE NIGHT of peace in this town?" Jimmy growled as they rounded a corner.

Carina stopped them at the corner and put a finger to her lips to quiet Jimmy. They heard the footsteps of the agents ready to round the corner. They got in position. The first agent turned the corner and ran right into a kick by Jimmy. Carina tripped the second agent and landed an axe kick at him as he went down. She ran at Jimmy and grabbed his shoulders, pushing herself into the air to flip her heel up into the chin of a third man as Casey and Cole found them. One agent tried to land a spinning kick on Cole, who caught his leg and stomped on his other knee, making the man buckle to the ground. Casey landed a hard jab on one agent and followed it up with a roundhouse. The last one tried to go at Cole but Jimmy nailed him with a nasty Superman punch.

"Ah, glad to even things up a bit in the rescuing department," Cole said, his voice having a bit of a teasing lilt.

Carina gave Cole an annoyed glance, which quickly morphed into something a bit less chaste when Cole's look started to get even more playful. Jimmy looked between Carina and Cole and shook his head.

"If someone ever asks me out on a date, just shoot me dead," he groaned, exhaling tiredly.

"I got dibs," Casey said with a smirk.

 _ **John F. Kennedy International Airport – New York, NY  
March 20, 2016  
12:00 PM EDT**_

Carina escorted Cole to the security checkpoint. Thanks to the work Cole did in protecting Chuck and keeping Perseus' intel from falling into the hands of Fulcrum, the CIA was flying him back on a G550 with enough liquor for three, even though he was the only one flying.

"Sarah wanted to tell you again how much she appreciated what you did for us," Carina said.

"My pleasure," Cole replied. "She leads a good group of people."

Carina smiled. "That she does."

Cole put down his traveling bag and slid his arms around Carina. "British Intelligence gave me a couple of weeks off to recover. They feel I need round-the-clock care. What do you think? It'll give us some time together."

"Mmmm, tempting," Carina purred before giving Cole a long, passionate kiss. "But all of us really want to find Orion so we can find out more about the Intersect. Especially if we can get it out of Chuck. And given all we've been through, we're so close now."

Cole nodded. "Of course. Chuck's a good guy. I respect your loyalty to him."

"I need to be here for my friends." She gave him another kiss. "But don't think you'll stray too far from me. I'll find you before too long."

"Until then," Cole said. He gave her one last kiss before he went through the security checkpoint. Carina wistfully watched him walk away.

But she knew she'd find him again.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
March 21, 2016  
8:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck collapsed onto the couch in the apartment. A day off was something he could have used, but the show fell behind on filming thanks to everything that had happened in New York and they had to go right back to work today.

Ellie entered the apartment looking as tired as Chuck did. She probably spent the weekend in as much peril with Devon's parents as he did.

"Everything OK, sis?" Chuck asked.

Ellie nodded. "Devon's parents took a lot out of me this weekend, and then I had a long shift at work today." She gently moved Chuck's legs off the couch so she could claim some real estate on it.

"I'm really sorry about not being here to help you with the Very Awesomes," Chuck said dejectedly. "I know that was an important thing for you. And everything with Sarah these past few weeks, it's…"

"You know, I've never been one of those girls that dreamed about what their wedding day would be like. What I'd wear, or even the person I'd marry. It was all kind of…hazy. And then I spent this whole weekend in wedding overload and I realized the one thing that I ever wanted above anything else was for Dad to walk me down the aisle."

Chuck sat up and put an arm around her. "Hey…hey, Ellie…"

"I know it's not going to happen," she said softly, a few tears coming to her eyes. "It's just…it's just really hard to let go of that."

Chuck pulled her tightly to him, and she put her hand on her shoulder over his. "You know what? Dad's going to walk you down the aisle."

Ellie shook her head. "You can't say that, Chuck. I know you want that for me, but we haven't heard from him in a really long time."

"Yeah. Well, I'm going to find him. I'm a smart guy. I can do that. And when he hears about the wedding, he'll be here for you."

Ellie turned to face him. "Come on. You really think he's going to make it?"

Chuck nodded. "I guarantee it," he said confidently.

"Thank you," Ellie replied, putting her arms around Chuck and hugging him tightly.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
March 21, 2016  
9:30 PM PDT**_

Chuck lay on his bed staring at the book containing Busgang's intel. He hadn't tried to look at it since returning to Los Angeles, but the temptation wouldn't go away. He grabbed the book and opened it up, leafing through the pages. Most of the pages contained computer code it would take months to figure out. He flipped to another page and several index cards fell out. These cards contained schematics to an Intersect computer. Chuck looked at them in shock.

He dropped them in surprise when he heard the knock on his window. "Sarah?" he said when he saw who was there.

Sarah entered his bedroom. "Is everything OK?"

Chuck exhaled. "I don't know. I've been thinking a lot about what we've gone through. I mean, I wish I knew if I could get this out of me. If the government even wants the Intersect out of me."

"Why wouldn't they?" she asked in surprise.

"What if…what if they can't build another Intersect? I mean, it's been over six months now. This thing…it's…I have to get back to my life, Sarah. I can't keep staring Ellie in the face and lie to her. I can't do that to Morgan, to anybody. I mean, are they even trying to rebuild the Intersect? What motivation do they have to do it when they can just keep sending me out into danger?"

Sarah sat next to him and took his hands. "You're right. Maybe Beckman can't be trusted. But I do know you can trust us. Case, Carina, Jimmy…they want the Intersect out of you. You deserve that. And I won't stop until it is. What you've meant for me is…you've made such a big difference."

Sarah looked right into his eyes. "Can you trust me?"

Chuck looked down at the ground. "Yes. Yes, I trust you."

"You WILL get the Intersect removed. Please believe that."

"It's something more…it's…I've been so distant from Ellie and she's going to get married soon."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You don't have to…"

"Hey, this is the least we owe you," Sarah replied sharply. "I'll get the government to bankroll the whole ceremony if I have to."

Chuck laughed. "No, nothing that big. Although I may hold you to that." That gave Sarah a laugh as well. "I promised Ellie I would track down our father. He…he left when we were still kids. One night, he promised to make us pancakes for dinner." Sarah's eyebrows arched. "He wasn't much of a cook. But he went away and never returned. And our mother had left a few years before. It was up to Ellie and me to survive.

"Ellie…Ellie always wanted Dad to walk her down the aisle at her wedding and I promised I'd try to find him. He sent a card once with a phone number on it, but it's probably been disconnected for a long time."

Sarah nodded. "I'll see what I can do. I mean, after all you've done for the government, I think it owes you a few favors."

Chuck looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Sarah."

Sarah went to the 'Morgan entrance' and left the apartment.

~/^\~

In a CIA substation in Oxnard, an analyst took note of a conversation they picked up on one of the surveillance bugs being used in Los Angeles. She completed a report and called her supervisor. She had the feeling General Beckman would need to know about this right away.


	22. A Very Frightening Part of Heaven

_OK, I did manage to get this one out a bit sooner than the last one, but a lot of changes happened as I was writing it. I thought it would have been easier to write, as this chapter was planned from the beginning. But as I wrote, I noticed certain things didn't work and certain plot points couldn't be done because of the nature of this story. Chief among those was that Agent Alex Forrest couldn't have an ally in John Casey. In the actual episode, until Forrest disparaged Sarah, he agreed with her methods and had no problem with her harsh treatment of Chuck. But like everyone else, he knew how Chuck interacted with Sarah was the reason why they were so successful. For this story, I extended that to the entire team. I also moved up Ted Roark's appearance rather than use the unattached plot from "Chuck vs. the Broken Heart." Although I may have overdone the Chevy Chase stuff. Still, it's a damn fine chapter if I do say so my damn self. :-D_

 _And I know some people may be upset, but someone had to come into the game for this chapter. If you've read my past stories, you probably know who it is already. I even went so far as to write an entire background for Alex Forrest (complete with a middle name, date of birth, hometown, and college). Although the specifics for this story are considerably different. And those differences play an important role as this story moves forward. However, in the next few chapters, the focus will return to Chuck and Sarah._

 _Anyway, long, annoying author's notes done. As always the parts from the show remain the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. Please leave reviews if you can. That'd be great...thanks. (little too Bill Lumbergh there? :-D )_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
March 23, 2016  
2:30 AM PDT**_

Chuck lay back in his bed studying the cards that were part of Busgang's research for the second night in a row. He didn't sleep much last night, and tonight wasn't any better. Despite Sarah's reassurances the night before, Chuck couldn't shake the possibility he may have been right when he said the CIA would never get the Intersect out of his head. Why would they? He spent the last six months proving it worked. And even he had to admit he was not the same person who received it that night on his birthday. But the Intersect had strained his relationship with Ellie, with Devon, and with Morgan. He couldn't tell them any of what he had done since receiving it. The lies and excuses he had to tell to keep them safe were getting to him quickly. And he couldn't stomach the thought of Sarah and her team constantly having to risk their lives to keep him safe. These were good people, and they deserved better.

 _Chuck…_

Chuck swore he heard his computer beep, but he ignored it and continued to look at the cards.

 _Chuck…_

The computer beeped even louder, but Chuck continued to ignore it. His phone then started to ring. He stared at it, positive he set it to vibrate.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Chuck," a computerized voice replied.

"Orion?" Chuck whispered in shock. "Why are you calling me?"

"Do you have the research from Dr. Busgang?"

"Wait," Chuck replied. "How do you know all of this? How did you know I'd be here? And how did you know Carina and Jimmy would rescue Cole and Dr. Busgang?"

"Because I helped them."

"You…helped them? How?"

"I hacked into the systems in the building where Dr. Busgang and Agent Barker were being held. Once your friends found them, I helped them to escape."

"Then…you know about…"

"Yes, I know about them. Just like I knew about Roan Montgomery, Agent X, and Project Goodwin."

"How?"

"Look at your computer."

Chuck looked over at the monitor on his computer, which displayed an unusual symbol that looked like a parallelogram with overdrawn lines. He immediately began to flash, seeing images of a breakfast meal, a large white room, old films of scientists, and schematics of the Intersect system.

Chuck stared at the monitor in shock. "How did you know that was in the Intersect?"

"I put it there," Orion answered. "A long time ago."

"You created the Intersect?" Chuck couldn't believe it. "Can you answer me this? Is it possible for the Intersect to be removed from my head?"

"Yes. But tell no one of this."

"Why not?"

"You will put your team in danger."

Chuck shivered. He had already told Sarah about Orion contacting her. What kind of trouble did he put her in? What kind of trouble did he put the team in?

"I will contact you soon," Orion said.

"Wait, I have more questions!"

Chuck got no reply.

 _ **O.C. Studios – Hollywood, CA  
March 27, 2016  
3:30 PM PDT**_

"This is getting heavy, McCall!" Duke growled.

"I'm working as fast as I can!" Lance exclaimed, hanging upside down in the elevator shaft attempting to open the bomb. "Fifty pounds of nuclear material packed in a steel case isn't exactly going to travel light!"

It was bad enough Boris Zukhov, the enemy the team had battled for six years, managed to sneak in a nuclear bomb that could level all of Manhattan. But then to hide it under one of the elevators of the Freedom Tower was the ultimate sign of abhorrence towards the team and the country. He wanted them dead once and for all, and he was willing to take out New York to do it.

"Burton, have you found him yet?" Duke said into his earpiece.

"Jill and I have him cornered on the 95th floor," Jen answered. "What's your status?"

Lance checked his watch. "I'm no closer to defusing this thing than I was ten minutes ago. This thing's got booby traps all over the place. You have to get that remote!"

Jen and Jill charged down the hallway, running into a group of Zukhov's men. Jen leaped into the air, landing a butterfly kick at the first one while Jill somersaulted forward to avoid being shot by a second one. She then leaped up to grab the man's hand, bent his wrist inward, and pulled the trigger to kill him. A third one went at Jen. Jill backed up to her, grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the air. Jen nailed that man in the chin with her boot and flew over Jill's head to take out the man behind both of them.

Zukhov looked on in amusement. "So glad to see the team hasn't lost a step," he said with a defiant snarl, waving the detonator. "But I planned for everything. If I drop this remote, if it moves more than a foot away from me, if you try to take it in any way, the bomb takes out New York. And even if somehow you still stop me, one wrongly-pulled wire on McCall's part will set it off, too."

He slapped a small charge of C-4 onto one of the windows and stepped away from it, hitting a button on another remote and shattering the window.

"And now it's time for me to go," Zukhov said with a smile as they heard the sound of helicopter blades outside. "My ride is here."

Jen advanced with her gun pointed at Zukhov. She looked ready to pull the trigger. She suddenly turned and emptied her clip at the helicopter, shooting the pilot. The helicopter began to spin out of control and fall towards the ground.

"So much for a quick exit, Boris," Jill said with her gun pointed at Zukhov.

He smiled, pressed a button on the remote, and dropped it. He then dove out the window. Jen and Jill went to the window to see Zukhov rip his jacket off to reveal a wingsuit. He glided across the Upper Bay and continued southwest towards New Jersey. The remote sparked and fizzled out.

"Uh, I'm assuming you weren't able to get the remote?" Lance said.

"Why?" Jill asked.

"Because this bomb just started a countdown! We have two minutes!"

"Let's go, Lance," Duke roared.

"Sure, no problem. We can get down 90 floors and twenty miles away in two minutes," he replied sarcastically.

Jen and Jill sprinted down the stairs to the 90th floor to find Duke struggling with the ropes to keep Lance in place. They both grabbed and held on.

"Hurry, Lance!" Jen exclaimed.

"Damn, I thought it would be more fun to take this slowly," he muttered in disgust as he finally got the bomb open.

"Sixty seconds," Duke called.

"Yeah, give me a countdown. That doesn't make it more stressful. Not at all."

Jen, Jill, and Duke struggled against the ropes as Lance hung upside-down, attempting to disconnect the detonator from the nuclear material.

"Almost have it…almost have it…got it!" he yelled as he pulled out the detonator. "Actually, I don't have it."

"WHAT?!" Jen, Jill, and Duke all exclaimed.

"The detonator is still counting down. There's ten seconds left! Pull the bomb out! Quick!"

"But…" Jen started.

"DO IT!"

Jen and Duke pulled hard on the ropes for the bomb, getting it up from the elevator, but Jill struggled with Lance's ropes.

"I'm slipping!" she exclaimed. "Lance, grab on to something!"

"I…where…" Lance looked around and found nothing. The detonator showed three seconds. Lance whipped it down the elevator shaft. The detonator exploded, shaking the entire shaft. The force made Jill fall and slide into the shaft. Jen and Duke got the bomb on the floor and dove for Jill, grabbing her legs before she fell down the elevator shaft. They tried to pull her up, but they were on shaky footing themselves and couldn't get any leverage.

"Lance!" Jen screamed.

Lance looked up at the three of them struggling to hang on. They were slipping into the elevator shaft. He shook his head sadly.

"Sorry, boss," Lance said softly. "I won't be in to work tomorrow."

He pulled a sharp knife from his belt, reached up, and cut the rope tied to his feet. He plummeted down the elevator shaft.

"Nooooo!" Jill and Jen cried. Duke looked on in complete shock as he held on to the two women.

"And…CUT! That's the season, everybody!" Director Patrick Norris said.

Everybody applauded as Jimmy was pulled back up on his harness. Sarah, Carina, and Casey congratulated each other on finishing the season.

"Nicely done, Jimmy," Sarah said as both Carina and she gave him a hug.

"Finally, they can get a decent actor in here instead of me," he quipped.

"AWWWWWW!"

A disappointed shout echoed throughout the studio, followed by side comments of 'dammit', 'that jerk', and 'I should have known better'."

Jimmy looked back and forth in shock. "What?"

"Yeah!" one voice shouted in triumph. "Pay up, suckers!"

"What's going on?" Both Sarah and Carina smacked Jimmy upside the head. "What the hell?!"

"We just lost a thousand dollars each thanks to you," Carina said with considerable ire. "I had you down for 'that should make the fans happy'."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"There was a pool going about the first thing you'd say after the final cut," Sarah explained, who was as upset as Carina was. "That writing assistant just won over $5,000 because he correctly guessed you would say 'they can get a decent actor in here instead of me'."

Jimmy was incredulous. "Everybody took a bet over what I'd say? And you two are pissed off at ME for losing?" He shook his head in frustration. "Now I really DO hope they kill off my character!"

"You're not the only one," Casey grumbled. "Cost me a grand, moron."

"Oh, I'd just LOVE to hear what you bet I'd say."

"I had 'I just saved New York and I'll still never get laid'."

"Uh, Lance isn't a virgin on the show."

"Who said I was talking about Lance?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes and turned on Sarah. "And what did you wager that earned me a smack upside the head?"

Sarah glared at him. "I thought you would just thank everybody and wish them a good summer."

"Wait. We have that dramatic conclusion with Lance possibly dying and you thought I WOULDN'T make a crack about myself? No, sorry! That's on you. I ain't taking the blame for that. You of all people should know me better."

Sarah growled in frustration at Jimmy when her smartphone beeped. She read the text message. "Beckman wants us at the hotel."

She went to find Chuck while the other three went for their cars.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
March 30, 2016  
6:00 PM PDT**_

The five headed down the hallway to the conference room. Jimmy was still doing a slow burn.

"And what did you think I was going to say?" Jimmy asked Chuck.

"I had 'the scriptwriters finally decided to be nice to us'," he said with a grin. "But I only had to put up $100 like everybody else. The crew agreed the highly-paid actors had to put up more money."

Jimmy huffed in annoyance. "You know what the worst part is? I'm taking shit about this and I wasn't even involved. How can I be blamed for the bet? I WAS the bet!"

They got to the door. "You do realize you have nobody but yourselves to blame," Jimmy griped. "You could have just told me about the bet and I would have happily rigged it your favor."

"We thought of that," Carina said before hooking a thumb at Casey. "But then he wanted in and threatened to rat on us, so we all agreed to play it straight-up."

"Whatever. But the next time Cole's in town, we're betting how long it'll take you to mount him. I've got ten minutes."

"You think I can't keep it under control? You can't be more generous than ten minutes?"

"He WAS being generous," Casey retorted.

Sarah opened the door to the conference room to find a tall blonde agent inside. Chuck stared at her and began to flash, seeing images of her in various outfits, dozens of passports, several commendation letters, and a paper target featuring holes all in the ten-point circles.

"I see all of you have met Agent Alex Forrest," Beckman called from the monitor.

"Who?" Chuck asked nervously. "What's going on?"

"I'm your 49-B," Forrest replied. The tension in the room suddenly reached maximum.

"49-B?" Chuck looked around at everyone. "What exactly is a 49-B?"

"Agent Walker? Mind fielding that one?" Beckman said.

Sarah hung her head. "Agent Forrest is here to assess my performance as this team's leader and during the evaluation period, she will act in that role. She calls the shots."

Both Carina and Jimmy were staring daggers at Forrest. Casey remained impassive, but he clenched his hands a little more tightly behind his back.

"Wait, stop!" Chuck said. "Sarah doesn't need to be evaluated. She's an excellent leader! How many times has she saved my life? I can't even count anymore!"

"Agent Walker has lost control of this team, and her relationship with you may be the primary cause of this," Forrest replied coldly. "She allowed herself to be taken hostage by Sasha Banacheck, and you had to perform a dangerous stunt to save her life when you shouldn't have even been there. She allowed you to be captured by Fulcrum by letting you volunteer to be the bait on that mission with Jill Roberts. She also allowed Agents Miller and Slade to go rogue on an unauthorized mission."

"They stopped Fulcrum from knowing who I was!" Chuck shouted in protest. "They rescued two people!"

"And finally, she promised to use government resources to track down your father. Appropriation of government resources for personal use is a serious breach of protocol. Agent Walker could be arrested."

Chuck's mouth dropped open in shock. He couldn't believe they had his bedroom bugged. "No," he said in no uncertain terms. "Absolutely not! I am not working with anyone but Sarah!"

"Fortunately you, like felons and small children, don't get a vote," Forrest replied with an icy gaze that could have sunk the _Titanic_.

"Moving on quickly," Beckman interrupted. "We have serious business to attend to. Our analysts have gotten some disturbing information regarding Roark Instruments. Your theory about Roark supplying Fulcrum may be correct. We have discovered large cash payouts to off-shore accounts that we know belong to Roark. All of them from numbered untraceable accounts."

"And you need us to find out what RI is doing for all that money?" Forrest asked.

"Precisely. Roark is hosting a party at his mansion in Malibu this weekend in anticipation of releasing his new RIOS operating system next week. Agent Slade, you'll go in there with Agent Forrest, whose cover story will be as a marketing director for the TV show. While the two of you float the idea of an advertising deal with Roark, Chuck, Agent Miller, and Major Casey will break into his network and attempt to find any information they can."

"What about Sarah?" Carina asked, attempting to keep the vitriol towards Beckman out of her voice…although not exactly succeeding.

"Agent Walker, you are to have no contact with the asset or any member of your team during this time. You'll spend your time on the talk show circuit promoting the end of the season for the show."

"But nobody has ever heard of Agent Forrest," Jimmy ground out. "If I went with Sarah, it's a different story. They couldn't open the doors fast enough for us. How do we get Forrest into the mansion?"

"We're going to leak to the press that you've been dating her for a few weeks. She goes in as your girlfriend."

Jimmy was already breathing fire, but Beckman's idea was a tank of gasoline thrown on it. "No. Hell no! Absolutely not! This whole situation is absolute bullshit! We've held off Fulcrum's all-out assault on us time and time again, and you're kicking Sarah off the team for it? Forget it! Find someone else to be your trained monkey! I'm not doing this!"

"Are you disobeying my orders, Agent Slade?"

"No, I'm telling you to take your orders and shove them up your…"

"Wait!" Sarah shouted. She grabbed Jimmy's arm. "General, let me talk to Jimmy alone for a moment."

Beckman looked ready to order Jimmy's execution, but she calmed down. "Very well."

Chuck, Casey, Carina, and Forrest watched Sarah and Jimmy leave the room.

"That's not how his psych profile described him," Forrest said quietly to herself, stunned by Jimmy's actions.

Sarah and Jimmy entered her room and Sarah shut the door behind them.

"Sorry, no," Jimmy began. "Do not ask me to calm down. You've done nothing wrong and Beckman pulls this shit on you? I'm not putting up with it!"

"Yes you will!" Sarah angrily retorted. "It doesn't matter why this happened. We still have to figure out what Roark is doing. If we can, we can stop Fulcrum and we can get the Intersect out of Chuck. I don't want you jeopardizing anything out of loyalty for me! Do this for him!"

Jimmy gave a hard stare to Sarah but his anger eventually ebbed. "This isn't right, Sarah," he said quietly. "You don't deserve this."

She sat pensively on the bed and was quiet for a few moments. "You may not think this is right. Maybe it isn't. But Forrest didn't lie. I did all of those things, including promising Chuck I'd help him find his father. She doesn't see Chuck the way I do, and neither does Beckman. To them, he's just an asset. And Beckman doesn't see our team the way I do. It's easy for Beckman to sit back behind that desk and act like she knows everything. But we've been in the trenches. We know how things really are. I have to be different. I learned that the hard way when Bryce left. I had to take that responsibility of being in charge. And once I truly accepted being the leader…and got you to stop constantly second-guessing yourself…then we became the team we needed to be.

"I need that team now more than ever. And you really have to step up and do this."

Jimmy looked at her for a long moment. He exhaled slowly. "OK, I'll do it." He put a cautionary finger in her face. "But you BETTER return or I will not be happy. And I was only pissed off in first gear in there."

Sarah laughed. "I promise. But can you do me one more favor?"

"Anything."

"I can use this time to search for Chuck's father, but I'm assuming my access will be restricted."

Jimmy nodded and smiled. "Say no more. I'll get something set up for you before tomorrow."

Sarah smiled and stood, hugging Jimmy tightly. "Thank you."

"Anything for the boss," Jimmy replied.

Jimmy walked back to the conference room. Nobody said a word, as the look on Jimmy's face indicated he was ready to cooperate.

"Let's get ready for this," Jimmy said. Forrest thought nothing of it, but Casey and Carina detected a little change in those words.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 2, 2016  
6:45 PM PDT**_

Jimmy walked down the hallway to the conference room and opened the door. He was greeted with a cacophony of screams and wolf whistles from Chuck and Carina.

"Hysterical," he huffed in frustration. He was wearing a custom-made black pinstriped suit from one of the best men's clothing stores in California with a royal blue patterned tie that matched his eye color. His hair looked like he just came from the most expensive stylist in Beverly Hills.

"You do know you're meeting Ted Roark and not proposing to him, right?" Casey said, taking the full-on swipe at Jimmy.

"Wow, Case. That sounded like a joke," Jimmy retorted. "Only…the complete opposite of that."

"Jimmy, you look better tonight than when you went after Sasha Banacheck," Carina said. "What gives?"

He threw his hands up. "I have to play the famous guy tonight. If I was with you or Sarah, I'd just walk in and get the hell out of the way while you two got mobbed. Now I have to be the center of attention. I'm not even remotely thrilled about it."

"You'll do fine," Chuck said. "You've done this a hundred times before."

"Yeah, with the team. Not with someone I've never worked with before. It's like starting from square one. Ask these two; they remember how much of a screw-up I was back then."

"What do you mean 'back then'?" Casey quipped.

"Yeah, funny," Jimmy replied, scratching his temple with his middle finger.

"There's nothing to worry about," Carina said. "You're our computer guy. Roark is a fan of the show, so he'll want to talk to you more than he would any of us. Then you and Forrest just need to be ready in case you have to get into rooms that we can't get to from the basement. Look for memos, stored code, whatever you can find."

"OK, I can do that."

Everybody turned when they heard the door open. Forrest entered the room in a cardinal Narciso Rodriguez silk chemise gown with spaghetti straps and a low-cut front that showed off ample cleavage. The skirt had a long slit up one side that could show as much leg as she desired. And unlike her ponytailed look from the other day, her hair was down and cascaded off of her shoulders and back.

Jimmy leaned over to Chuck. "OK, that's impressive," he said quietly.

Forrest looked at the four, although her eyes stayed on Jimmy the most. "The car is downstairs. Ready to go?" she asked him.

Jimmy looked at the others before turning back to Forrest. "Let's do this."

Jimmy walked to the door and opened it for Forrest to exit first. She gave him a glance before exiting with Jimmy right behind her.

"This…just got complicated," Carina said quietly to herself.

 _ **10880 Malibu Point – Malibu, CA  
April 2, 2016  
8:00 PM PDT**_

The limousine pulled up to the mansion of Ted Roark. A valet opened the door and Jimmy Slade stepped out first to a chorus of screams and picture-taking from the paparazzi and fans who had made the journey west from L.A. He reached in with his hand and Forrest took it, exiting the limousine and making sure the paparazzi saw plenty of leg. She pasted a huge smile on her face as she pulled Jimmy close to her.

" _Jimmy, how long have you two been going out?"_

"A few weeks. We kept it quiet while we were filming the last episodes of the season. We didn't want to rock the boat."

" _Alex, are you also an actor?"_

She laughed about as fake of a laugh as Jimmy had ever heard. "Oh, not even a little. I work with the marketing people on the show. But this is certainly a wonderful opportunity to talk with one of the biggest software giants in the world. Maybe even negotiate some advertising contracts."

" _So is this trip business or pleasure?"_

"I don't know," Jimmy replied. "Depends on how drunk we get."

The crowd laughed as Jimmy and Forrest entered the mansion.

~/^\~

"That was her laugh? She should be fired for that alone."

Carina wasn't in much of a good mood as Chuck, Casey, and she made their way to the ten-foot wall in the back of the mansion.

"Isn't there a better way in?" Chuck asked, the wall intimidating him already.

"Sure," Casey replied. "Just gotta come in from the ocean side and scale the cliff. Why do you think this is located on Malibu Point, numbnuts?"

"Do you give every asset you guard this much abuse?" Chuck said in exasperation.

"Yes," Carina replied with an angry gaze at Casey.

"It's easy," Casey said as he attached a winch to Chuck's belt. "Just keep your feet glued to the wall like you're walking up it and the winch will do the rest."

Carina attached her winch as Casey fired three pitons at the top of the wall. Each of them grabbed a rope trailing from them and inserted them into the winch. Carina went up first, easily ascending the wall. Chuck was next.

"OK, here I go," Chuck said nervously. He activated his winch but couldn't get his feet under himself and attached to the wall. The winch pulled him up over his body's protests, and Carina had to grab him before he fell over the other side.

"You guys make this look so easy on the show," Chuck droned in frustration as he got his footing on the wall and watched Casey quickly scale to the top. Casey unhooked his winch and jumped down from the wall. He then caught Carina as she jumped down. Chuck jumped off the wall…and landed on Casey and Carina.

"Next time, you deal with Forrest," Casey growled from underneath him.

The three got up and hid behind a tree, careful to not be caught by the sweeping CCTV cameras.

Carina turned on her earpiece. "Forrest, we're in position," she said.

"Give us ninety seconds," she replied. Jimmy and Forrest walked through the party, Jimmy shaking the hands of guests as they went by. They found an access point to Roark's home network behind an unused bar. Jimmy attached a small drive to it, overlaying a taped image onto the security monitors. He nodded to Forrest.

"Video is looped," she told Chuck, Casey, and Carina. "Proceed."

The three ran for the service entrance. Carina picked the lock, and they proceeded downstairs into the lower levels of the mansion.

"Casey, look," Chuck said, pointing to some network cabling along the support beams. "There might be a network interface down here."

Carina took out a heat scanner and began to sweep the area. "There," she said as she pointed to their right. "I'm picking up heat sources ten meters away. Most of them are too big to be human beings."

They slowly moved in that direction. "I hear fans," Casey said.

"Cooling fans for large servers," Chuck replied. "This must be it."

Casey and Carina kept watch while Chuck pulled out a wireless USB adapter designed to transfer data to the CIA substations in Oxnard. He crawled across the floor and behind one of the servers, attaching the adapter to a port in the back.

"Forrest, Slade," Casey said quietly over their earpieces. "We're into Roark's network, but it'll take time to download and analyze all of that information. We can't get to his office; the basement's sealed off from the rest of the house. You'll have to get there on your own."

"OK, you three head to the van, and we'll take care of that," Jimmy replied. He began to look around. He spotted Ted Roark making his way towards them. Roark stopped to shake hands with a world famous soccer player on the German national team who was on his way out.

"Auf Wiedersehen," the soccer player said as he shook Roark's hand.

"Fahrvergnügen," Roark replied and made his way over to Jimmy. "Jimmy Slade! It's a pleasure to see you here. Big fan of the show."

"Thank you. It's good to be here, Ted," Jimmy replied, shaking his hand. "I've studied a lot of your work. I'm very excited about the new OS launching next week. Although I imagine all of my high-tech dialogue on the show gives you a laugh more than anything. Compared to you, I'm a complete idiot."

"Aw, come on. People don't say that about you as far as you know."

He looked at Forrest. "Ted Roark," he said to Forrest, extending his hand.

"Alex Forrest," Forrest replied, shaking Roark's hand. "I'm an account manager for the studio. I've heard a lot of exciting things about Roark Instruments. Do you have a moment?"

"Certainly. What can I do to you…for you?"

"We're doing some scouting for next season regarding product placement in episodes of the show and wondered if you had an interest in having your software and peripherals featured in episodes throughout the season."

"Now now, there's no need to talk about work on a Saturday night. This isn't Russia. Is this Russia? This isn't Russia, is it?"

"Nah," Jimmy replied.

"Didn't think so. But by all means, leave me your business card, LinkedIn profile, panties, whatever you want to give me, and we can talk after the launch."

Forrest handed Roark a business card. "Hope to hear from you soon," Forrest said. "You have a very lovely home."

He nodded and smiled. "Thank you very little," he replied as he moved on to greet some other guests.

"That was pleasant," Forrest said with an overdose of sarcasm.

"Forget it, let's just find his office," Jimmy replied as he pulled out his smartphone and scanned a floor plan of Roark's mansion. "Here we go. Down the hallway."

Forrest took a look. "Too many people would see us."

Jimmy scanned the crowd for a minute. "I have an idea." He held out his arm for Forrest to take. They started to walk down the hall. Jimmy put his lips at Forrest's ear.

"React like I just said something really dirty and it turned you on," Jimmy whispered.

Forrest's eyes widened in surprise, mainly following Jimmy's idea but partially in amazement he thought of that. Typically, he never improvised until there was actual danger. She gripped his arm harder and ran her fingers over his face.

"OK, now you do that," she whispered in his ear, and he gave her the same reaction. He pulled her closer to him as the two walked down the hallway acting like two horny teenagers. They got around the corner, away from all of the partygoers.

They peeked down the hall to see a guard between them and Roark's office.

"OK, how do we get past this guy?" Jimmy said quietly to himself. Forrest pulled out a tranq gun strapped to her thigh and fired, nailing the guard and sending him to the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.

"Standard protocol," Forrest replied dismissively.

"Uh, no. You're not going to start tranqing every last person in sight. We're lucky he didn't see us. What if someone catches you tranqing people? You'd blow all our covers! We're secret agents with very public identities!"

Jimmy went down to the guard and pulled him into Roark's office. "And I'm not going to spend half my night dragging bodies around because you insist on being the poster girl for the NRA."

"Enough," Forrest snarled. "Just get the intel and be done with it."

Jimmy shook his head in annoyance as he attached a USB adapter to Roark's computer to download the files on it. He then looked at some documents that were lying on Roark's desk.

"Oooh, jackpot," Jimmy whispered. He set his smartphone to scan and made a copy of a series of blueprints marked 'Black Rock'. "Chuck, are you getting this?"

"Am I ever," Chuck replied from the van. "This might be the proof we need that Roark is working with Fulcrum. But what is Black Rock?"

"No clue." The adapter beeped. "OK, we got what we need here." Jimmy turned to Forrest. "Let's go."

Jimmy grabbed the adapter and headed for the door. He held it open for Forrest, and she exited into the hallway. Jimmy followed her out, only to see a guard turn the corner from down the hallway. Forrest readied her tranq pistol.

"Don't," Jimmy whispered.

The guard turned to see them. Jimmy grabbed Forrest's face and kissed her hard, using his body to shield the tranq pistol from being seen by the guard. Forrest grabbed the back of Jimmy's neck to pull him closer to her as their kiss increased in intensity. The guard shook his head and walked back the other way.

It took a moment for Jimmy and Forrest to notice the guard was gone. They broke the kiss and stepped back slowly from each other.

"Sorry about that," Jimmy said sheepishly. "It's all I could think of to send him on his way." He turned to walk down the hallway.

"Sure, no problem," Forrest replied, her mind still in a haze.

In the van, Chuck, Casey, and Carina looked at each other in complete surprise, having witnessed the entire exchange on Jimmy's and Forrest's hidden cameras.

"Just when you thought this couldn't get more interesting," Carina said as she sat back in her chair, shaking her head in total disbelief.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 6, 2016  
3:45 PM PDT**_

Chuck spent the last several days going over all of data collected from Ted Roark's house. The blueprints Jimmy found were coded, and CIA analysts were working to decipher the plans. There was little question now that Ted Roark was involved with Fulcrum, but how much he knew was still to be determined. One thing was certain: given what Fulcrum had done previously to attempt to find the Intersect, they didn't put anything past what Roark was capable of. He was one of the most powerful men in the country, and some were worried that the new RIOS operating system being launched might be used to gather intel throughout the country.

He got home a little early today, since he had to establish for Ellie and Devon there was no work to be done with the season's filming concluded. He walked into his bedroom.

His bedroom had been ransacked, and his computer was gone.

He looked around in absolute shock. The government must have done this since the rest of the apartment was untouched. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but he had every intention of getting some answers right now.

He quickly reached under his nightstand and found the comic book. He breathed a sigh of relief. The cards that were with Dr. Busgang's research were still in it. He was so thankful he thought to do that after discovering his room had been bugged.

He exited the apartment and headed straight for the hotel.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 6, 2016  
5:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck practically ran down the hallway to the conference room. He took out his keycard and opened the door. He stopped in utter shock.

Casey, Carina, and Jimmy all stood there with looks of defeat. Forrest was fuming, but the biggest surprise was to see General Beckman standing there, looking even more upset than Forrest.

"What is going on?" Chuck demanded. "Who trashed my bedroom and took my computer?"

"I did," Forrest replied without a drop of remorse.

"What the hell gives you the right to invade my privacy?"

"The fact that you have no rights. You've been withholding information from us."

"What are you talking about?"

"You've been in contact with Orion," Beckman spat out.

"That is a complete…"

"Don't bother, Mr. Bartowski." Beckman looked as mad at him as the team was at her the other day. "We interviewed Agent Barker, and he told us that Agents Miller and Slade were given outside help in his rescue but didn't know who was responsible. We then analyzed the signals from Agent Slade's tablet computer. The encryption used to access it is ten generations ahead of the best software available. But this same encryption was used recently in Hong Kong, right before a Fulcrum team was blown to pieces. It was the same encryption we found accessing our servers in our New Jersey facility."

She then pointed to Chuck's computer, which was sitting in the room. "The same encryption that accessed your computer. And then we found you were in possession of Dr. Busgang's research."

"Looks like Walker has indeed lost control of this team," Forrest said, twisting the knife further.

"Sarah had nothing to do…"

"Do I look like I am interested you defending Agent Walker for the hundredth time?" Beckman said, growing more upset by the minute. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, we are in the midst of a secret war with Fulcrum. And I believe the outcome of this fight will rest squarely on your shoulders. And the way Agent Walker has operated this team is a detriment to victory."

Beckman turned to everyone. "I am placing Agent Forrest in charge of this team until further notice. You will infiltrate Roark Instruments and get as much intel as possible. And Chuck, you will not leave the field office. You will pour over every scrap of intel the team collects and do nothing else. Do I make myself clear?"

Chuck was too shocked to respond. He turned and left the room. Carina and Jimmy went after him. Beckman also exited.

Forrest exhaled quietly. "You must be glad to finally have someone who knows how to follow the rule book leading this team," she said to Casey.

Casey turned and glared at her. "Agent Forrest, I was defending this country when your biggest worry was if you made the freshman volleyball team. Don't try to tell me who makes a good leader and who doesn't."

Casey walked out of the room, leaving Forrest by herself.

Chuck walked to a stairwell instead of the elevators. He had no intention of letting Beckman say another word to him. He then heard the door open behind him to see Carina and Jimmy there.

"Guys, I had no idea they had my room bugged," he said, clearly in pain from what just happened. "I didn't want anything to happen to Sarah. I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault, Chuck," Carina replied. "Beckman has a pole so far up her ass, it tickles her brain. She doesn't trust her agents and yet demands it in return. The price for being a spy. It just sucks you got caught up in it."

"No, you know what? I am done with this. Let Beckman handle this herself. She is not going to rip this team up just because you take the occasional risk."

"Wait. Slow down, Chuck," Jimmy replied. "This is exactly what Sarah chewed my ass out for the other day. Beckman and Forrest are like the MJ and Pippen of bitchiness, but she wasn't wrong about us being at war with Fulcrum. I don't even want to imagine how far they've gotten their meat hooks into the government, and it has to be stopped.

"Look, we need you, man. You've done more in six months than half the agents in the government combined. And we need you if we're going to win this. We'll get the team back together somehow. Forrest's stay is going to be very, very short. Promise."

Chuck looked at the ground and exhaled slowly. He nodded. "OK, I'll do it."

"Appreciate it," Jimmy replied, giving Chuck a hug. "Go home and get some rest. We can take care of RI. Just get us those answers."

Chuck managed a tiny smile. Carina gave his cheek a gentle caress. "We'll get Sarah back."

Carina and Jimmy walked back into the hotel.

 _ **NSA Field Office, Western Region – Los Angeles, CA  
April 9, 2016  
4:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. To say there was plenty of work to do was an understatement. He had been over document after document, looked through thousands of lines of code, and saw more network schematics than he had during all of his time at Stanford. There was no doubt now that Roark Instruments was working with Fulcrum; the question was what they were doing. He recalled some of the schematics he managed to hide from being confiscated by Forrest and he had his suspicions, but revealing those suspicions meant admitting he was still holding out on the government. The team was in enough trouble already, and Chuck couldn't even fathom how bad things were right now with Forrest leading them. He kept working towards having some solid evidence so he could present it to Beckman and Forrest without making things worse for Sarah and the team.

"What's your progress?" Forrest asked behind him.

Chuck jumped a little bit in his chair. He wasn't expecting Forrest to be there. "Nothing that we don't already know," he replied mechanically, trying to keep his considerable hatred for Forrest out of his voice. "These plans will take a lot of time to figure out, but there's more here than just the operating system he released."

Forrest wasn't fooled. "Let me be clear, Bartowski. Walker is gone. I'm your new handler, and I lead this team. There is nothing that will change that. And if you want to have someone to blame for this happening, try blaming yourself. You compromised the integrity of this team of agents."

Chuck bolted out of his chair and faced Forrest. "You know, Sarah never needed to resort to this sort of behavior to make things work. She did more to stop Fulcrum than you'll ever know. And don't think for one second anyone on this team has any respect for you. I sure as hell don't."

He shoved the chair back under the desk. "I'm done with this. I'll only work with Sarah."

Forrest got right in his face and was quickly losing her icy demeanor. "Then you can spend the rest of your life in a six-by-six cell and never see the light of day. And your sister and her fiancé will have to spend the rest of their lives in mourning because they'll think you were killed in an auto accident. Or maybe shot by a crook; something even more pointless. That is, when they're not fighting to keep the AMA from revoking their medical credentials. And to think what will happen to Morgan…"

"You wouldn't…"

"This is the way of your world now. Get used to it."

Forrest walked away, leaving Chuck speechless.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 9, 2016  
5:00 PM PDT**_

Forrest walked into the conference room. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were sitting at the computers looking a bit worried.

"We haven't had any contact from Bartowski," Casey said. "We rang his phone, but it went into voicemail."

"That doesn't mean anything," Forrest replied dismissively.

"Chuck NEVER ignores a call from any of us," Carina retorted. "Even if he's talking to somebody else, he'll pick up."

"I left him at the office an hour ago. He probably went home." She grabbed the tablet computer Jimmy was holding and punched in the GPS number for Chuck's watch. "There. He's in the courtyard," she said, indicating the beep on the map of Echo Park.

"OK, first of all, leader or not, don't snatch my tablet out of my hands," Jimmy spat at her. "That's like touching a car radio when you're not driving."

Jimmy quickly punched up the surveillance cameras for the courtyard. "And secondly…" he said, showing the image to everybody.

"He's not there," Forrest said in surprise. "But…"

Jimmy zoomed in the image. "His watch is there. Someone threw it in the fountain."

Just then, Casey's phone began to ring. The Caller ID did not give the number.

"Trace this," Casey ordered, and Jimmy entered the appropriate commands into the computer. He then handed Casey a USB cable attached to it, which Casey linked to his phone.

"Hello?"

"Case, I'm sorry," Chuck said. I was walking from my car and they grabbed me. They want Dr. Busgang's notes. This big, scary guy wants them. In two hours. 17492 Camino De Yastasto in Pacific Palisades."

"Chuck…" Casey said, but the phone cut off. He looked at Jimmy, who shook his head.

"Nicely done." Carina turned on Forrest, her last visages of self-control gone. "You've led this team for three days and already got Chuck kidnapped."

"I will not be questioned…" Forrest growled.

"HEY!" Jimmy yelled. "Focus, people! We have to get Chuck back right now."

"We are not giving them the notes," Forrest replied, only slightly more calm than a moment ago. "If we can't get him back, we have to eliminate him. Bartowski is expendable."

"Not to us," Casey replied.

Forrest went to the weapons cabinet and took out a pair of Glock G17's and a sniper rifle. "Let's go," she ordered.

The four left the hotel. Carina made a phone call out of sight of Forrest.

 _ **17492 Camino De Yastasto - Pacific Palisades, CA  
April 9, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck was moved to a room in the middle of the building. Had this been any other situation, he wouldn't have been that nervous, as he had grown accustomed to Sarah and the team pulling him out of a dangerous situation. The dune buggy and ATVs they used to rescue him on the beach in Monterey was definitely his favorite, although Jimmy's leap to catch him after being dropped by Mr. Colt and Casey and Carina shooting it out to protect him at Stanford were certainly impressive as well. But this situation was not like those. Sarah wasn't here. And even though he still trusted Casey, Carina, and Jimmy, he didn't trust Forrest to think of his well-being. He figured there was no way she'd give up Busgang's notes. But he didn't know what they would do to rescue him. If Forrest would even let them attempt it.

Vincent, the very tall, scary looking guy who stood next to him when he made the phone call two hours ago entered the room.

"One way or another tonight, we're going to get what we need," he said to Chuck. "Fulcrum still needs to know about you. And if we get our hands on the Intersect data Dr. Busgang possessed, that will be even better."

Suddenly that six-by-six cell Forrest threatened him with earlier today didn't sound so bad.

~/^\~

Casey and Carina walked into the building and were met by a pair of agents who proceeded to search them for weapons. They then escorted them to the room where Chuck was being held and stood across from Chuck and the man who kidnapped him.

Jimmy and Forrest crawled through the duct work above the room, having worked their way in from the rooftop. They stopped and carefully lifted a ceiling tile to see into the room.

"Do you have the research?" Vincent asked Casey and Carina.

"Let Bartowski walk over here first," Casey replied.

Vincent put a gun to Chuck's head and the two agents who escorted Casey and Carina in aimed their weapons as well. "That's now this works."

Casey and Carina looked at each other. Casey took the large folder he was holding and tossed it on the ground towards them.

"Pick it up," Vincent ordered Chuck.

Chuck picked up the folder, and Vincent kept Chuck close to him.

"Thank you for your cooperation," he said to Casey and Carina. "But Fulcrum still needs to know about this man, so I'll be taking him with me." He pointed behind Casey and Carina at the two agents, who still had their guns trained on Casey and Carina.

Jimmy and Forrest watched the entire exchange and heard what Vincent said over Casey's and Carina's earpieces. Forrest readied her sniper rifle.

"What are you doing?" Jimmy demanded.

"They can't be allowed to take Bartowski," Forrest replied. She aimed the rifle.

"You're going to try to shoot that ugly tree trunk from this far away? What if you hit Chuck?"

"I'm aiming for Bartowski. Make this clean and painless."

"Like hell!" Jimmy snatched the rifle out of her hands. Forrest was shocked. "This is why we work so well with Sarah. We always have a way out!"

Jimmy looked into the room and aimed the sniper rifle. "Case, Carina, get ready to kick some ass," he whispered over their earpieces.

He aimed at a pipe for the sprinkler system just above Chuck and Vincent and fired a shot. The bullet knocked off the sprinkler head, sending a torrent of water crashing down on Chuck and Vincent. The surprise was all Casey and Carina needed. Chuck dove out of the way as Casey turned and grabbed the wrist of the man behind him, taking his gun away and pistol-whipping him with it. Carina sent a spinning kick at the man behind her to knock his gun away and then sent a wicked hook at him. Casey spun and fired at Vincent, but he ran out the opposite door.

"Chuck, let's go!" Carina yelled as the three ran out of the room in the opposite direction. Jimmy and Forrest opened the ceiling tiles and dropped into the room. They ran in the same direction as the others.

In the hallway, Chuck, Casey and Carina encountered four more agents. Chuck ran away from the agents as Casey and Carina opened fire with their confiscated guns, taking all of them out. Chuck rounded the corner and ran right into another agent. The agent leveled his gun at Chuck.

A shot was fired, and the man fell to the ground.

Chuck turned to see who fired. "Sarah?" He couldn't believe she was here. "How did you know?"

"Carina called," Sarah replied with a smile. "Thank God, too. It got me out of another appearance on _Ellen_."

Jimmy and Forrest came around the corner and found both of them there.

"Apparently you've forgotten you're not part of this team anymore," Forrest said acidly.

"Then I guess there's nothing stopping me from kicking your ass," Sarah retorted with equal hatred.

"Whoah, bad time for this," Jimmy said, gently turning Sarah back towards the other direction. "Let's save it for later."

Sarah took Chuck and walked back down the hallway as Casey and Carina walked in their direction. Jimmy turned around…and found Vincent holding Forrest hostage. Everybody looked on in shock.

"Give me the research," Vincent said in barely-contained fury. "Or she's dead."

"Go ahead, she hates us anyway," Jimmy said nonchalantly.

"I seriously doubt you're that cold," Vincent replied with an amused look.

Jimmy shrugged and looked a bit sheepish. "Maybe. But It's all I could think of to send you on your way."

Forrest's eyes widened as she stared at Jimmy. He raised an eyebrow.

Forrest turned towards Vincent and kissed him. He stepped back in shock, giving Forrest the chance to move away. Jimmy quick-drew his Glock and drilled Vincent with a single shot.

He safetied his gun and turned back to everybody. They began to walk away from Forrest.

Casey then turned around. "That's why Walker is a good leader," he said to Forrest.

Forrest stood there in silence.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 9, 2016  
10:00 PM PDT**_

"Agent Walker, you were under strict orders to have no contact with your team or the asset," Beckman said, not in a good mood as she talked to the team over videoconference.

"General," Chuck replied. "You admitted that we're at war with Fulcrum and that I could be the difference in defeating them. If that's really the case, wouldn't you want the best people you have protecting me? I was rescued today because these people ARE your best people. Fulcrum had us dead to rights and still failed. And I think the way the team works with each other…and the way they work with me…I honestly believe they are your best chance to defeat Fulcrum. I think it's because of how close we are that we are so successful. And it all starts with Sarah. We're close because we care about each other. You may not think it's right, but it has been successful."

Beckman was silent for a moment. "Agent Forrest, your assessment?"

Forrest looked at the team. "Agent Walker and her team break every protocol and rule we have regarding the handling of assets. But it is clear their method works. Trust is crucial to their success, and this team trusts each other more than I've ever seen from any other agent."

She paused and looked at Jimmy. "In fact, I'm still alive because of it."

Beckman nodded. "Given how we arrived at this point, I considered your relationship to the team to be a liability. But in reality, it can be considered an asset to the…asset. You may resume your post, Agent Walker. We hope not to see you too soon, Agent Forrest."

The screen went blank. Agent Forrest grabbed her travel bag and walked towards the door.

"Good luck to all of you," she said, the coldness in her voice considerably thawed. She opened the door and stepped out, taking one last look at Jimmy in the process. The door closed, and she stood there for a moment.

A tiny smile graced her lips.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 10, 2016  
5:00 PM PDT**_

Sarah went to her door when she heard the knock.

"Hey there," she said to Carina when she saw who it was.

Carina waved a bottle of Jack Daniels. "A little celebratory shot?" she asked with a grin. "A 'welcome home' party?"

Sarah laughed and hugged her. "Absolutely. I could use one. I hate doing talk shows. Next season, you're doing them."

"Yeah, that'll be the day. Besides, they're still talking about that 'Carpool Karaoke' thing you did. That was the first time they did that on _The Late, Late Show_ without an actual musical artist. But then the spy theme was pretty funny."

Sarah grabbed a pair of shotglasses and held them out. Carina poured some whiskey in each and put the bottle down.

"Oh, that was so lame," Sarah said, shaking her head in embarrassment. "Thank God Daniel Craig and Jennifer Garner can actually sing."

"Bullshit. We saw it on YouTube. It was a riot. James Bond, Sydney Bristow, and Jen Burton singing in the same car? You did great."

She took one of the shots and held it in the air. "Here's to things getting back to normal," Sarah said, clinking glasses with Carina. Both of them downed the shot.

"Hopefully," Carina replied cautiously.

"What do you mean? Forrest is gone, we rescued Chuck…"

"Actually, the problem is with Jimmy."

"What? After what I told him…"

"No, no. That's not it. You know how we keep wanting him to step up more in the field and lead a little bit? Well...he did. I mean he really took charge."

"Really?"

"I was shocked to see it, but he didn't put up with any of Forrest's crap. And then…" Carina paused, still unable to believe what happened.

"What?" Sarah prodded.

"I…think…Forrest might have had a thing for Jimmy. I suspected something before we headed to Roark's, but then to stop Forrest from tranqing a guard and blowing our covers, he kissed her. I mean REALLY kissed her."

Sarah's mouth dropped open in surprise. "No way!"

"I'm telling you, there is no way in hell any of us would have expected Jimmy to do that. And even crazier, I think Forrest really liked it."

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. "How about that for an irony. I kept telling Jimmy someone would find him and it turned out to be the person that almost broke up the team."

"I'm sure he won't think any more of it. I mean, we won't see Forrest again. I don't think we have to…"

Sarah heard a beeping sound behind her. It was the laptop Jimmy configured for her to search for Chuck's father. She looked at the screen.

"I found him," Sarah said. She quickly forwarded the address to her smartphone. "I have to go. I have to tell Chuck."

 _ **Unknown Location  
April 10, 2016  
8:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck and Sarah pulled up to a trailer miles from any sort of civilization. Chuck was nervous, to say the least. This would be the first time in over a decade he would see his father.

"Wow," he said as they got out of the car and looked at the Airstream trailer. "Guess you had to break a few rules, huh."

She smiled. "Go on. Knock."

Chuck stared at the trailer. "I couldn't find him. The man didn't want to be found. I mean…you had to illegally access the government's master database to…"

"Chuck," she replied. "It will be good to see him."

He stared at her for a moment and then nodded. They walked up to the trailer, and Chuck knocked on the door. He didn't get a response. Sarah could see his entire body slump as he looked at the ground in disappointment. She gently caressed his cheek.

"I'm sorry," she said gently.

Chuck turned to look at her and gave her a tiny smile, which gave her a smile as well. He started to move towards her, and her hand held the back of his neck.

The door opened. Both of them turned to the person inside.

"Dad?"


	23. I'm Not Who You Think I Am

_Hello. I'm trying my best to cut down the time between chapters, but I don't seem to be having much success. I've got a lot of things going on right now, and I wish one of them was a full-time job. I have to keep working at that. And the funniest part is, this chapter follows canon a bit more than most chapters. Although there is some background information to read in this chapter, some foreshadowing, and a long conversation that will play a role later in the story._

 _BTW, if you catch any meta-references, just let me know. Somehow I managed to slip a few past you in the last chapter, and I don't just mean all the Chevy Chase quotes. Ted Roark's mansion is one of them...that is if you think sharing your house with Tony Stark could be considered a meta-reference. And now that I think about it, I used Chevy's actual address for the scene where Chuck has to be rescued._

 _I have also tried to add humor to my stories. Let me know if it's working and if you have any particular favorites from the story. Writers ALWAYS want to know what you think. At least I do. :-)_

 _Anyway, enjoy the new chapter, which contains plenty of material that is the property of NBC and Fake Empire productions. And don't forget to review! Hopefully everybody's getting excited for what happens next._

* * *

 _ **La Belle Équipe Café – Paris, France  
**_ _ **April 5, 2016  
**_ _ **9:30 PM CEST**_

He looked as the crowds began to thin out. The people weren't as boisterous as they used to be. It was understandable: Paris had been attacked twice in the last year, and nineteen people were murdered on this very street only five months ago. He wasn't around to see it happen, not that it would have mattered anyway. He already knew what senseless loss felt like.

His wife was murdered thirteen years ago.

This was where he proposed to her, and they were married in a beautiful cathedral not far away exactly one year later. It was a lovely spring day just like this one. He originally met her on the quad at the University of Iowa. She walked by, hurrying to her next class, while he was taking in a brisk Friday afternoon right before Wisconsin was due into Kinnick Stadium for a football game the next day. He watched her go by, and she turned back and smiled.

That smile was all he needed to know about her. Even after she showed up the following Monday to the very same CIA orientation class he did.

They had what Minnie Driver once described in _Grosse Pointe Blank_ as "frightening natural chemistry." He was stoic and guarded; she was flirty and playful. And it worked. After graduating from Iowa, both of them started on covert operations for the government. Most times they worked alone, but every now and again they worked together posing as a married couple. One of those times was right here. They were taking a break, and he couldn't think of a more romantic place to propose. He never thought he would be happier in his life.

He became a widower after two years of marriage when she was killed on a mission.

He was beyond devastated. He was never the same agent after that. They tried to keep him in the field for a few years following her death, but it was to no avail. They then transferred him to Langley to analyze intel from agents, but he didn't have the skills…or the heart…for the job. Eventually he was let go on a medical hardship so he could at least collect a salary. It was at that point he fell off the face of the Earth. Nobody had seen or heard from him since, although nobody really put in much of an effort to do so.

As he poured another drink from the bottle he bought, he felt the rage that had been a part of him since the day he found out his wife had died. It was a rage that had consumed him because it had no outlet. It had no path in which it could be directed. He wanted justice. No…he wanted revenge.

The only thing he wanted out of the rest of his life was to find the person who killed Evelyn.

 _ **National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) – Urbana, IL  
September 17, 1992  
2:30 PM CDT**_

"This isn't right. We are not ready."

Stephen Bartowski couldn't believe it. For supposedly being the leader of this team, he had little pull with the government. They fast-tracked Project Goodwin over his protests. He had successfully translated the data the NSA provided into images, but a lot more testing needed to be done. However, Major Langston Graham didn't appear to have much interest in anything he had to say outside of beginning the tests.

"You told me the images are ready," Graham replied in an extremely gruff tone.

"But we need more time to test this. We don't want another Agent X on our hands. That blew up in the government's face twelve years ago."

"This needs to work and work now. After what happened in the Middle East, in Kuwait, and with the downfall of the Soviet Union, the political stability of the world is very fluid right now. We have to be proactive. We can't afford to sit on our asses anymore and hope it all works out."

"But we're skipping protocols and going right to a live test. Those protocols are there for a reason."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Graham replied without a single ounce of sympathy.

"But why him?" Stephen demanded. "This could be potentially dangerous to the students if it fails, and you said the first student would be chosen at random from the entire group. Why Jimmy? What did he do wrong?"

"Did you read his file? Mother and sister died when he was eight? Killed by a drunk driver, who also happened to be his abusive father? Never had any friends, never dated any girls, slept in his car after running away from home? We couldn't get a better candidate. Let this thing kill him; we'd be doing him a favor."

"No, absolutely not. I will not be a party to destroying his life. The Intersect program is not ready for human testing."

"That is disappointing, Mr. Bartowski," Graham said in an extremely ominous tone. "Are you refusing to cooperate? Because I would hate for anything happen to your family. Your wife, Mary. Your children, Eleanor and Chuck."

Stephen looked ready to kill Graham. But this was all he had left in his life. Ted Roark had managed to steal so many of the things he invented and was building an empire off of them. This project was all he had. And he had to see it through to keep his family protected.

"Fine, you win," he said in defeat. "But I walk away when this is done. And you never come near my family."

"That seems reasonable," Graham replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, blackmail always seems reasonable to the person exercising it," Stephen hissed.

Graham picked up a phone. "Bring him in."

An assistant led Jimmy Slade into a large room in the basement of the NCSA. Apart from a one-way mirror along one wall and a projector screen at the opposite end, the only item in the entire room was a very uncomfortable chair with wrist and ankle straps. The assistant pointed to it, indicating for Jimmy to sit down. She then placed the restraints around his wrists and ankles, giving him the same derisive look almost every other person at the University of Illinois gave him. Jimmy thought he had left that behind when he finished high school. But he could not have been more wrong.

The assistant walked out of the room and the lights dimmed. "You will see a series of images on the projector screen in front of you," a voice called out over the loudspeakers. "Keep your eyes focused on the images."

Jimmy nodded his assent. The first image appeared on the screen. Jimmy thought nothing of the field of mushrooms he was seeing. The image then changed to a baseball field, then kids playing in a park, then a picture of the Lincoln Memorial, then a gondola floating along a river…

The images started to flicker by. From one every five seconds to every second to two per second, the pace quickening at an exponential rate. Jimmy was starting to feel quite the headache. He tried to close his eyes but couldn't. He couldn't turn his head to the side. He couldn't even blink. The images had a hypnotic effect on him.

The pain started to become unbearable. He started growling in pain, attempting to get out of the chair but held back by the restraints. The pain increased, causing him to scream louder and louder. The images continued to change at a blinding pace.

He then collapsed in the chair. Stephen gasped from behind the one-way mirror and immediately shut the projector off. He ran out into the room and removed the restraints on Jimmy.

"Someone call 911!" he shouted.

"No!" Graham bellowed. "Do not call anybody!"

Stephen looked at him in horror. "Are you insane? His pulse is barely there and his breathing is labored! I warned you this could happen! The technology required to make the Intersect work doesn't even exist yet!"

"Nobody can know about his experiment, Mr. Bartowski. Send the other nine students back to the dormitory. We have to find some way to salvage this."

"And what about Jimmy?" Stephen demanded.

Graham walked back to the room behind the one-way mirror and made a call to the NSA office in Chicago to order backup and a medical team.

"What about him?" Graham said with a shrug.

Stephen stared at Graham in absolute disbelief. He couldn't believe he could be this callous about someone who may have just lost his life. Someone who didn't deserve it. He couldn't be a part of this anymore. There was no way he would allow anybody else to end up with the same fate as Jimmy. But Graham's threat regarding his family echoed in his mind. He realized he had two choices to protect his family: continue with Project Goodwin and risk another innocent person or disappear forever. Neither option sounded appealing.

He began to plan his escape.

 _ **Unknown Location  
April 10, 2016  
8:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck and Sarah watched his father walk around the trailer…as much as he could walk in such a confined space…trying to make some coffee for them.

"I'm sort of freaking out here," he whispered to Sarah.

"I know," she replied. "But he's your father, and he seemed happy to see you."

"You think? I thought it was just lack of recognition followed by shock."

"You take cream?"

"Huh?" Chuck turned towards his father. "Yeah. No. Whatever's fine." He turned to Sarah again. "I can't even remember if I take cream," he quietly huffed.

"Just relax," Sarah replied, putting a reassuring hand on his arm.

"How? I…I haven't…I haven't seen my dad for, like, ten years, and now I'm sitting in his living room-slash-kitchenette while he's making us coffee. Plus, let's just say the last time I saw him, he was kind of…I mean, he tended to be a little…what's the word? Crazy."

"Here we go," Stephen said, handing coffee mugs to Chuck and Sarah. He smiled. "So good to see that face again. And dating…well, Sarah. I can't believe you found him. You could have your pick of any guy in the world and you're dating my son."

Chuck gave a little laugh. "It's good to see you, too. So, uh, you doing OK?"

"Who cares about me?" Stephen said broadly, although it was obvious he was trying to get the spotlight away from himself. "Tell me what's going on with you. I mean, you must be quite happy these days, hanging out with the cast, dating Sarah."

"That's…there's not much to tell outside of that," Chuck carefully replied. "Graduated high school, went to Stanford. Was working at a Buy More before meeting Sarah and started working on her show."

"Stanford. Not bad." Stephen appeared to give a more genuine smile at that thought, the same one he gave anytime he looked back and forth between Chuck and Sarah. "He was always the genius, this one," he told her.

"No, not like you," Chuck replied quietly.

"You're right. He was smarter." That put a smile on Sarah's face. "What about Ellie? How is she?"

"Really great, actually. She's a doctor now, and in a few weeks, she's going to get married to…well, an awesome guy."

"Ellie's getting married?"

"She is. That's actually, mainly why we're here. "Ellie was really hoping that you might be there to walk her down the aisle."

Stephen shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think she would want me there."

"I mean, of course…of course she does. We both do."

"It's not a good idea," Stephen replied with a bit of force behind it as he poured himself another cup of coffee. "But tell her that I'm happy for her."

Chuck stood. "Are-are you joking? You have to do this. She's your daughter. Don't you want to be there?"

"Charles, I can't…"

"I don't want to hear what you can't do," Chuck retorted in anger. "I've SEEN what you can't do."

Stephen's posture slumped in shame. Sarah looked back and forth between the two.

"I'm sorry," Chuck said, dropping back down into his chair. "I…uh…that came out wrong."

Stephen shook his head. "No it didn't. You're mad. I left, and…and you're mad."

"Look, Dad, I'm not even here for me really, OK? Right now, I just…I want you to come home for Ellie. Please."

"I like you coming up here and fighting for Ellie. Makes me happy you at least had each other."

He rose and went towards his bed at the opposite end of the trailer. "Let me get a few things together."

"Are you OK?' Sarah asked Chuck.

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm glad we found him for Ellie."

"And for you?"

Chuck sat there for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Maybe he's not as crazy as I remembered."

"OK," Stephen said as he joined them with a bag and a series of folders. "Let's get your sister married." He then looked out the window. "Good, it's dark enough now. They're tracking my every move. Rat bastards."

"Forget I just said that," he whispered to Sarah.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 10, 2016  
9:30 PM PDT**_

"So, I was thinking that this would be perfect for the rehearsal dinner," Ellie said to Devon, holding up one of his ties. "Because if I wear that sage dress, this will match perfectly."

"Sounds good," Devon replied.

"Or…"

The door opened. "Hey, Ellie."

"Hey, Chuck. Just a sec." She turned back to Devon. "Or we could do the cranberry, which would really bring out your…um…"

Ellie stopped and looked back at the door. She couldn't move.

"Hello, Eleanor," Stephen said with a smile.

The two stared at each other. "Aren't you going to say something?" Chuck asked her.

"Pancakes?" she eked out.

"Oh, boy," Stephen replied, completely crestfallen.

"You said you were gonna make pancakes," she said as tears came to her eyes.

"I…I…"

Ellie ran off to her bedroom. Chuck followed her to it. Stephen and Devon stood there awkwardly.

"That…that went well," Stephen said quietly.

Chuck knocked on Ellie's bedroom. "El, I'm sorry." He opened the door slowly to find Ellie lying on her bed. Chuck sat down next to her. "I'm sorry, I should have called first. A surprise of this magnitude wasn't the best idea."

"It's not your fault," she replied. "I'm just…so mad at him, our crazy old dad. Aren't you mad at him?"

Chuck exhaled slowly. "I was, yeah. But then I realized that…you know, we can hate him for the rest of our lives, or we can choose to forgive him."

"It's easier to hate him."

"Well that may be. But he's all we got left, El. This could be our last chance at being a family again."

Ellie turned towards Chuck. A tiny smile graced her lips and she put her hand on Chuck's arm. "Let's go," she said.

The two of them walked back into the living room to find Stephen and Devon talking to one another. They stopped when Ellie sat down on the couch next to Devon.

"I…" Ellie began. "I was just surprised to see you, Dad."

"Yeah," Stephen replied with a chuckle. "I'm sure you were. You…you look just like your mother."

The already-high tension in the room didn't seem to be abating. "What…were you two discussing?" Chuck asked carefully.

"Actually, your father was just explaining our television to me," Devon replied.

"Yeah, I was just telling Devon that I, um, invented your TV," Stephen said, digging into his pockets for some drawings he did on a small piece of paper. "I came up with these helix-shaped plasma crystals back in high school. Never saw a dime for it. Touchscreen technology, that was one of mine. Uh, Ted Roark and I came up with it in grad school."

That really got Chuck's attention. "Dad, you went to school with Ted Roark?"

"The Roark Instruments guy? Awesome," Devon said, equally impressed.

"Yeah," Stephen replied, not even remotely impressed. "He took all my ideas, and, uh…I never got anything. Guy's a lying thief."

"Well, how about I, uh, order some pizza. Pepperoni?" Ellie said to relieve the tension.

"Speaking of television," Devon continued, taking Ellie's cue to change the subject. "What do you think about your son dating Sarah Walker? Hanging out with all of those stars? We've met them, and they're all awesome."

"Yeah, Dad. I mean, the last seven months have been great," Chuck said, conveniently leaving out how often he had come within inches of death during that time period. "And Devon's right. John Casey, Carina Miller, they're great. Jimmy Slade, he used to study computers. I'll bet he'd have a lot of questions for you."

Stephen bristled at that. "No…no, sorry Chuck. That's…not a good idea."

"Why? They're not your typical actors. They're all really great."

"I just can't, OK? Please."

Chuck, Ellie, and Devon looked at each other in surprise.

"Pizza…pizza does sound good, El," Stephen said. "Delivery is a little tough out where I live."

Ellie nodded and got on the phone. Devon went to get some wine and put plates out on the table. Chuck continued to stare in confusion at his father. It didn't make sense. He had already met Sarah. What was wrong with the rest of the team?

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 11, 2016  
1:00 PM PDT**_

Casey, Carina, and Jimmy entered the conference room loaded down with documentation and what appeared to be more blueprints. Sarah turned and initiated a videoconference with General Beckman.

"Do you have everything?" Beckman asked.

Carina nodded. "We have everything we could get without getting caught," he replied. "I'm not sure how much this stuff will help. I'm assuming all the really good intel is on their servers, and it's obvious Roark spends as much time on network security as he does on the golf course."

"Do we have a back door established into their systems?"

"Installed that this morning," Casey replied. "We slipped a wireless router on the computer of a secretary who is out this week. It'll spoof the IP address of the computer so we can access their network without them finding out. It's then up to the crypto team to get past the firewall."

"They should be out there by later tonight. Make sure you're ready for them."

"Understood," Sarah replied and disconnected the link. "Chuck, do you think you and Jimmy can handle the intel we've already received? Case, Carina, and I will head to the NSA office to make sure Beckman's crypto team has everything they need."

"Sure, you got it," Chuck replied. Sarah, Casey, and Carina departed as Jimmy started laying out the papers and blueprints the team acquired from Roark Instruments.

Chuck took a look at the blueprints. "You got the ones for the entire building? I don't think either one of us knows a lot about architecture."

"True, but maybe your Intersect will see something we missed," Jimmy replied. He then stretched and craned his neck. "I need to get some coffee first. I spent most of last night crawling through duct work."

He headed towards the door. "Do you want anything from downstairs?" he asked.

"No, I'm good. Thanks," Chuck replied. Jimmy departed and Chuck began to look over the plans. He felt like he was back in college going through a homework project in his electrical engineering class. Only now, the entire country was in the balance. The team kept telling him to keep that part out of his mind and just study, but he couldn't do it. He never felt pressure like this before. Fulcrum was planning something big, and Roark Instruments was definitely in on it. But what? Were they going to take over computer systems throughout the country? That seemed almost laughable, like something straight out of a movie. But given what he had been through over the last seven months, he didn't put it past them.

Then a horrifying thought went through his mind. _Is Fulcrum trying to build an Intersect?_

The idea made him shudder, and he started looking through the computer code again in desperation, attempting to see if anything matched the research he saw from Dr. Busgang. There had to be something in the documents. Something that proved they were working on their own Intersect.

He got up and stretched. This WAS starting to feel like one of those engineering projects in college he would sink his teeth into and not let go, no matter how many times he pounded his head into the wall when he was stumped. He remembered it drove Jill nuts, one of the few foibles he had that actually annoyed her. But then, maybe she couldn't fault him for it because she was like that herself when faced with a problem she couldn't solve. He gave a long exhale, regretting now he didn't have Jimmy get him some coffee.

He went over to the new items the team brought in and glanced through them. Nothing looked out of the ordinary at first. He then unfurled the blueprints of the Roark Instruments campus. He looked at the first page, which gave an overall layout. He then leafed through the other pages, which were renditions of the various buildings around the campus. He didn't flash on anything and put the pages back.

"Everything OK, Chuck?"

Chuck gasped and jumped in surprise. Jimmy had returned with his coffee.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Jimmy said apologetically. "Any luck so far?"

"Nothing," Chuck replied.

"Don't get down. We just have to keep at it." Jimmy started going through some of the documentation.

"I…it just feels like the more we do, the bigger this gets. I'm starting to wonder if we can actually stop them."

"We will. Sarah's right; we are the best team of agents the government has. And what you've done has made us a hundred times better. I'll take the way things the way they are now over how things used to be any day of the week."

"How were things before you were put on the team? I mean, you were a spy before meeting everybody, right?"

Jimmy nodded. "I worked for six years on my own. Things were a lot different then. My track record made me look like Jason Bourne's pissed off older brother. Spy work wasn't exactly exotic locales and hot women for me when I first started. I did mostly the hardcore dirty work."

"Well, you did say the Intersect got you locked up and gave you severe pain, so I can certainly understand being angry all those years."

"The Intersect was only part of it. Things were bad for me…well, my whole life."

"Yeah, I remember you saying that," Chuck replied quietly. "You had no one to talk to? No friends? What about your family?"

Jimmy shook his head. "You know how every school had that one kid everybody picked on? I mean…everybody?"

Chuck grinned. "Yeah, I'm best friends with him."

Jimmy smiled. "Well, imagine Morgan not having you for a friend. How bad would things be for him then? Of course, that was just the tip of the iceberg. My mother and sister were killed by a drunk driver when I was eight. And I didn't find out until high school that it was my father who was the drunk driver. Ran the car right into a tree." Jimmy was quiet for a moment. "I thought after getting away from him I could change things. I didn't want to turn into him, a no-good drunken prick. But college was just as bad. Then I signed up for this experiment they told us was to make teaching more efficient. I should have known better. I was the only one of the ten they actually experimented on. They abandoned the project and told everybody I had killed myself."

"What happened to the other nine students? Anything?"

Jimmy laughed with ample amounts of disbelief. "The government had them work on a computer project to cover up the spending they did for the Intersect. Actually, you may know a couple of them. Marc Andreessen, Eric Bina?"

Chuck's eyes widened in complete shock. "No…"

"Yup."

"The test candidates went on to invent Mosaic? The basis for every single web browser we use today?" Chuck was stunned silent. "So, let me get this straight. Not only were you constantly teased in high school, lost your family, driven crazy by the Intersect, spent eleven years in prison without a trial, you ALSO lost a shot at being a millionaire?"

"Well, when you say it like that, you make it sound so bad," Jimmy replied sarcastically.

"My God. I can certainly understand why you have so much loyalty to Sarah and the team."

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, she straightened my fat ass out. The more I think about it, putting me on the team after Bryce disappeared was a brilliant move on Graham's part. He knew I needed someone to take my spy work to the next level, and Sarah needed someone who would make her focus on leading the team. Win-win, I guess."

Chuck was silent for a moment. "How did they finally get the Intersect out of you? I can't believe I never thought to ask that question. I mean, if they got it out of you, there must be a way to get it out of me."

Jimmy shrugged. "I have no idea. They took it out six years ago. They never really explained how. They just had me sit at a computer, they showed me a bunch of images, and I never flashed again. Although to be fair, the longer I had it, the fewer things I flashed on. Maybe the information I possessed became outdated. But I never found out how they did it."

Chuck tried to stifle a yawn. "Guess you needed some coffee after all," Jimmy said with a smile.

"Yeah, you're right," Chuck replied. "It feels like freshman year at Stanford all over again."

"No sweat; I could use some more myself. Back in a few."

Jimmy departed, and Chuck began to look through the documentation again. There had to be something here. He figured the answer was sitting right in front of him and he just wasn't seeing it.

He then froze.

He grabbed the comic book which contained the cards from Dr. Busgang's research and opened to a particular schematic. It was a large outline of the Intersect computer. He then put it next to the blueprint for the RI campus and compared the two.

They were the same.

Suddenly it all made sense. The CIA needed a supercomputer to handle all of the Intersect data, so it would make sense that Fulcrum would need someone like Ted Roark to build them a supercomputer. Just like the data was downloaded into him, Fulcrum could download data into their agents. But where would they get it? It appeared there were moles in many government agencies, but they could only get so much intel, just like Sarah's team was limited in the amount of intel they could get.

 _RIOS_ , he thought. What if Roark used the release of the new operating system to infiltrate computers in the government, in corporations, in just about any organization in the country? The software could be configured to steal any data Fulcrum needed.

Chuck began to hyperventilate at the thought of being right and he could feel his chest constricting. He wanted to warn Sarah, warn the team Roark was doing this. But he didn't want to put the team in trouble. Sarah was almost fired for backing him. He couldn't risk them on what was a very wild hunch. He refused to let them get hurt only to be wrong.

He had to get the proof himself.

 _ **Roark Instruments – Irvine, CA  
April 11, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck hid in the bushes near the front door to Roark Instruments. The team had gone to the NSA regional office to meet with Beckman's crypto team to go over the specifics of the software and code they were able to procure from RI. Chuck told them he could continue to analyze the existing intel at the hotel, and they agreed immediately. He felt guilty about deceiving them like that, but he couldn't handle one of them getting hurt over something even he wasn't certain of. He borrowed Casey's flak jacket and holstered a pair of tranq guns. He also wore the watch the team gave him, just in case he did find the evidence or he had no choice but to call for help.

Someone exited the building and Chuck snuck in behind their backs, slipping into the entrance before the door closed. He took the graphic he found online of RI's campus and studied it, comparing it to the card in Busgang's research showing the design specs for the Intersect computer. He snuck down the hall to where the central core should have been. He could then hear footsteps. He looked to his left and found a lab with an unlocked door. He quickly hid as the figure moved down the hallway. He didn't get a good glimpse of him, but he saw a group of guards surround the man in question. He then shook in fear when the man turned in his direction.

His father was at Roark Instruments.

 _What the hell is he doing here?_ Chuck thought. He knew his father hated Ted Roark and accused him of stealing his ideas, but what was he thinking in coming down to RI and confronting Roark?

The five agents held Stephen. "What should we do with him?" one of agents asked over their radio.

"Bring him in. We'll deal with it in private," was the response. Chuck then flashed at hearing the voice, seeing a file on Javier Diaz, Fulcrum's head of computer espionage.

Chuck's eyes widened. He couldn't let his father be taken by Fulcrum. He pulled out the two tranq pistols and shut his eyes, attempting to clear his mind and concentrate. He threw the door open and came out screaming, firing away at the agents with both tranq guns. He fired over and over until he was out of darts.

All of the agents fell, and only Stephen remained. He looked at his son in total shock.

"Dad, Dad," Chuck panted. "We have to go. We have to go right now. I can explain all this to you later. For now, all I can tell you is…I'm not who you think I am."

The doors slid open behind them, and Agent Diaz stood with a gun pointed at them. "It's good to see you again," he said to Stephen. "Good to see both of you."

Diaz motioned with his gun for Chuck and Stephen to put their hands up. Chuck put his hands up and hit the two buttons on the watch.

"Don't worry, Charles," Stephen said. "I'm not who you think I am, either."

"Hands up," Diaz ordered.

Stephen put his hands above his head and slid his right hand towards an electronic device on his left wrist. He punched a series of buttons. The doors slammed hard onto Diaz, trapping him. Stephen nailed him with two roundhouses as sirens began to blare throughout the facility. He typed on the device again, and the doors released. Stephen kicked Diaz in the face to knock him out.

He turned back to a stunned Chuck. "Are you coming? We should go, Charles."

"Oh, my God. You…you're Orion!"

Stephen nodded. "We should hurry."

They started walking down the hall. "I can't believe it. My father invented the Intersect."

"Well, not all of it," Stephen replied. "Just the really cool stuff."

Stephen typed on his wrist device and found the room he was looking for. He continued faster down the hallway.

"But why now? You must have known where I was. I was certainly in the public eye enough. Why didn't you contact me sooner?"

"I couldn't risk putting you or Ellie in danger. Ever since you were kids, when I disappeared, I had to do it to protect you. The government wouldn't let me walk away from the Intersect project and I didn't want to harm another innocent person because of it. That's why I had to disappear."

Chuck stared at him in shock. "You were the one to put the Intersect in Jimmy 25 years ago! That's why you didn't want to meet any of Sarah's team. It wasn't about the team; you didn't want Jimmy to see you."

Stephen nodded. "After what I put him through, he'd probably want to kill me. I thought the Intersect had driven him to suicide, and I refused to put anyone else through that. But once he became an agent, he popped back up on the radar and I had a chance to fix the horrible mistake I made."

"You sent the government the file to get rid of his Intersect."

"Exactly. I really wanted to stay away, but then I just barely escaped from Fulcrum in Hong Kong. I thought I had covered my tracks, but I was wrong."

Chuck thought for a moment. "That was the data Cole Barker found! All those images of me! And those map coordinates!"

"That was an incredible stroke of luck that Carina was attracted to Cole. I figured he knew you were the Intersect, and I had to stop Fulcrum from torturing him. That's why I helped Carina and Jimmy with his rescue."

"And you knew Busgang would lead us to the Intersect data."

Stephen sighed. "I knew I would have to spend the rest of my life hiding from the Intersect, but I never imagined that it would find you. That's why I came back. It's my fault you're in this and I have to get you out of it. That's why Sarah was able to find you. I wanted her to. What those four can do, how they've protected you, they're the first people I've ever trusted since this started."

"You knew Sarah and her team were really spies? Then why didn't you just say who you were when we found you? Why not just tell me the truth?"

"Would you have believed me? After not seeing me for ten years? I just appear, bring you to RI, and tell you I can get the Intersect…which I also built…out of your head? What would you have said to that?"

Chuck hemmed and hawed for a second. "That you were…a little bit crazy."

"Exactly."

They stopped at a large door with a Feistel cipher security code. "Now flash or we'll be a little bit dead," Stephen said firmly, pointing at the code panel.

"Listen. No, Dad, you don't understand. It doesn't work like that." He pointed to his head. "Unless it's in here, I can't do that."

"Yes you can. I designed that computer in your head, son. Flash, and it will be the last thing you ever have to flash on."

Chuck looked at his father and saw the confidence he had in him. He gave a little smile and concentrated on the keypad. He was surprised to indeed flash, seeing the correct sequence to punch into the keypad. The door slid open.

"Aces, Charles," Stephen said.

The two walked into a very large room with a single table and two chairs. Sitting on the center of the table was a long cylinder with a spinning cube inside of it.

"That's the Intersect?" Chuck asked, pointing at the cylinder.

"2.0," Stephen replied. "My baby. My greatest creation. After you and your sister, of course."

Stephen pointed at the chair to the right. "Let's make that the hot seat."

He went over to the chair on the left while Chuck sat at the chair on the right. Stephen typed a few commands into the keyboard in front of him and a glass monitor slid upward for each of them.

"We need to make some minor modifications to Roark's software so that the images can be programmed to take the Intersect out of you."

He brought up several screens of computer code and began to make changes to it. "So, I'll see a bunch of encoded images like I did when I first got this?"

"Precisely. They'll cancel out the ones that you originally uploaded."

Stephen typed in a few more modifications. He then put on a pair of sunglasses. "Ready?" he asked Chuck. Chuck nodded.

"Good luck, Charles," Stephen said and hit the [ENTER] key.

Images began to appear on the monitor in front of Chuck but then stopped. Red lights began to strobe on the screen and sirens began to blare throughout the room.

"Something's wrong," Stephen said as panic began to creep into his voice. "No, no, NO! It's not working!"

The doors suddenly slid open. Agent Diaz and several of his men were there. And Ted Roark was with them.

"No, it doesn't work," Roark said. "But I'm sure you'll have it up and running in no time."

All of the agents trained their guns on Chuck and Stephen. "You always did have a way with computers, Orion. And remember? I always had…well, I always had a way with the girls."

Roark put his hands on Stephen's shoulders. "Hey, what's the matter, man? No hug for your old partner? No? I've been looking for you for a long time. The years have been unkind. I could offer you a good moisturizer. Huh?" Stephen replied with silence. "No? OK."

Roark turned to his men. "Put him on the helicopter. Kill the CIA agent."

"He's my son," Stephen replied.

"He's your son?!" Roark stared in wide-eyed surprise. "Congratulations! That's great! I had no idea." Again he looked at his men. "Kill the son."

One agent grabbed the Intersect cube as the others turned their weapons towards Chuck. "Wait, I-I'll…I'll build anything you want," Stephen said in defeat. "Give Fulcrum their Intersect. But my son walks away from here. You don't touch him, my family, or his friends."

Diaz turned his gun towards Stephen. "You'll build it either way.," he said in a menacing tone.

Stephen turned to him in utter contempt. "You gonna torture me? After ten years away from my family? My son walks away! You touch any one of them and you get nothing!"

"All right, all right," Roark replied, trying to calm him down. "I'm not a monster. I'm a…little bit of a monster. But today is his lucky day. And besides, what if they cancel the show? I mean, I guess I could binge-watch that TV show about zombies on Netflix, but it's really not my thing."

Roark started walking towards the exit. "Shotgun on the chopper! Let's go."

Stephen gently pulled Chuck towards the opposite exit and hit a button on the keypad to open the door. "Take care of your sister. Keep an eye on the team. And make sure you tell Jimmy how sorry I am to have put him through all of that."

"Dad…"

"You can do this without me."

"I'm not going to leave you!" Chuck said in desperation as Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy came up behind him in full tactical gear. Everyone pointed their guns.

"If your son's going to walk, he should do it now," Diaz warned.

Sarah stepped forward and stood next to Chuck. Stephen took one last look between them and gave a little smile.

"Goodbye, Chuck," he said sadly.

"NOOOO!" Chuck screamed and tried to lunge forward. Sarah and Casey restrained Chuck, dragging him out the door while Carina and Jimmy kept their guns on Roark's men. Diaz pushed a button and the doors slid shut.

"DAD!" Chuck screamed one more time as his father disappeared from view. Tears formed in his eyes as Sarah and Casey held on to him.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 12, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

Ellie walked into the kitchen after a long day at the hospital. "Dad?" she called, expecting him to still be somewhere in the apartment. She then saw the plate of pancakes on the table.

"Dad?" she called again, approaching the kitchen. Instead, she saw Devon pulling some items out of the refrigerator.

"Ellie, I don't know how to tell you this," he began sadly. "I think your dad may have split. His stuff's all gone."

Ellie dropped her keys on the table as she could feel herself choking up. Tears started to fall from her eyes.

"Hey, hey, I'm sure he's planning on coming back for the wedding."

"No, no he's not," she said, becoming more emotional by the second.

Devon took her in his arms. "Well, if it's any consolation, I'm not going anywhere. I mean, no matter how hard things get between us. Because that's what married people do, right?"

She smiled and took his face in her hands, giving him a passionate kiss. She then rested her head on his chest. "This is my fault. I…I shouldn't have asked Chuck to find him. I thought I needed him to walk me down the aisle. I thought he would be different from that guy that walked out on us. I guess I just expected too much from him."

Devon held her tightly and buried his face in her hair. "Hey, I've got the most beautiful woman in the world in my arms right now. And a woman who never gives up. She had to learn that from somewhere. Don't count him out yet, El. He's coming back. He knows how special you are. And so do I."

Ellie's grip on Devon increased.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
April 12, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked into the Buy More in a daze. It had been 24 hours and it still didn't feel real to him. His father had invented the Intersect. His father had been helping the team to get the Intersect out of him. And now he was in the hands of Fulcrum. He didn't know what to do, and nobody had talked to him about it since. Maybe they figured he needed some space after what happened, but the truth was he needed to talk to someone. He needed a friend.

Unfortunately, Morgan looked the same way he felt.

"Chuck, oh God, Chuck," Morgan said as he walked up to him. "You're not going to believe how badly I screwed up."

Chuck awoke from his daze. He then noticed all of the nasty looks the employees were giving Morgan. He then saw Big Mike wearing a green Buy More polo shirt.

"What? What's going on?" Chuck asked in confusion.

"Dude, I…I can't believe this happened. Emmett is the new manager of the Buy More. And it's my fault. I thought corporate was coming to rate his performance, and he convinced me to get everybody to talk him up so he got promoted and would leave the store. But then I find out corporate was here to evaluate Big Mike, not Emmett. They demote Big Mike and put Emmett in charge of the store!"

Morgan looked ready to tear his hair out. "God, can you imagine a worse situation? Emmett's in charge and I put him there! They're going to kill me!"

Chuck stared at Morgan. He didn't have to imagine a worse situation. He was right in the middle of one. Thinking he could protect the team by going off on his own, and his father was captured as a result. He could barely keep himself together. He was so close to succeeding and now he couldn't shake the fear he may never see his father again.

"Sorry, buddy," Chuck replied with absolutely no energy behind it.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 12, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

"Chuck went to Roark Instruments on his own!? And allowed Orion to be captured!? How could you let this happen!?"

To say Beckman was upset was the understatement of the year. Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy delivered their report from what happened last night. The general was beyond incensed.

"We weren't expecting that," Sarah admitted. "Chuck figured out Roark Instruments had built their own Intersect computer but didn't want to risk us over it."

"And now Orion is in the hands of Fulcrum. And fixing their Intersect. Where is Chuck now?"

"He's talking to Morgan at the Buy More," Carina replied. "We're watching him even as we speak."

"Forget it. The human Intersect project has become too hard to control. I can't afford to wonder anymore if this team or Chuck Bartowski is a liability."

"What are you saying, General?" Sarah asked.

"I'm shutting down this project. Chuck's going into lockdown. He'll be taken to Washington and put into a secure facility once and for all."

"You're making a mistake, General."

"I have made my decision, Agent Walker," Beckman replied with absolute finality. "I have contacted the NSA office to bring Chuck in."

"Chuck isn't going to go down without a fight."

"That's why there won't be one. Chuck trusts you, Sarah. He thinks you would never betray him. Use that. You'll go to the Buy More and tell him we intercepted his father while being transported and he's back at the hotel. You will then deliver him to the NSA team, who will tranq him and have him here in D.C. before the morning."

"We'll be ready, General," Casey said, shocking Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy.

"That is all," Beckman replied. She terminated the link.

Sarah looked at Casey in absolute horror. "How the hell can you…"

Casey gently put his hand up. "One second…"

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
April 12, 2016  
7:45 PM PDT**_

"I trusted the wrong man, Chuck," Morgan lamented. "And now…now I've screwed everything up." He exhaled in frustration. "Sorry I went on like that. How are you? Things good with Sarah?"

"Yeah," Chuck replied quietly, his mind a million miles away. "Things are good."

Both of them turned when they saw Sarah walk into the store. "Hey sweetie," she said to Chuck, giving him a quick kiss. "Morgan, can I talk to him alone for a moment?"

"Sure," Morgan replied. "Not a problem." They watched Morgan slunk away with his head down.

"Good news, Chuck," Sarah said. "They found your father."

Chuck's mouth dropped open in amazement. "How? Where is he?"

"One of our recon teams intercepted his transport as Fulcrum was moving him. He's back at the hotel. He's safe, Chuck. It's all over."

Chuck's expression transformed into a huge smile. "Thank you, Sarah. You told me to trust you and you were right. You've always looked out for me and kept me safe. You…you're amazing."

"Come on. Let's go see him."

Sarah took Chuck's hand and led him out of the Buy More. They turned the corner towards her car. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were waiting for them.

"Good, you found him," Carina said. "Chuck we're really sorry, but we have our orders."

"Orders?"

Sarah looked at her in total shock. She then reached into her coat and pulled out two tranq guns, firing repeatedly at Casey and Jimmy. They fell to the ground as Carina ducked and rolled to avoid being hit herself. She kicked upward to knock the tranq guns out of Sarah's hands. She then bounced up, but Sarah was prepared. She blocked Carina's punch and then spun, nailing Carina in the face with a hard kick. Carina promptly went to the ground.

Chuck stood motionless as Sarah reached into Jimmy's bag and grabbed his smartphone and tablet computer. She then took Chuck's watch off of his wrist and threw it away. She pulled at his arm to put him in the passenger seat of her Porsche. She jumped into the driver's seat and floored it out of the parking lot.

"Sarah! Sarah, what's going on?" Chuck asked, almost hyperventilating.

"It's all a lie, Chuck," she said. "Fulcrum still has your father. Beckman sent us to bring you to the NSA office. They were going to take you underground. We have to run."

"But wait, why aren't they helping you? You need your team!"

"They wanted to. The plan was for all of us to disappear together. But I can't put them through that. Just like you broke into Roark Instruments alone because you didn't want to see us harmed, I don't want them charged with treason. I have to do this on my own. I'm responsible for you, Chuck. I got you into this, and it's up to me to get you out of it."

"But you could go to jail."

Sarah looked out at the road, and Chuck's words weighed heavily. But there was no choice now.

"I know."


	24. Your Pal, Morgan

_Hello there. This is another one of those chapters that everyone has probably waited to see. Chuck and Sarah are on the run and Fulcrum has his father. I originally thought this chapter would be one of the chapters that followed show canon the most, but there were actually a lot of elements I had to make...and at least one that I hope you appreciated. There is one significant item that was taken out, but that will be covered at a later point. And there are a few changes to be had throughout._

 _I hope to have the next chapter out a bit sooner, but I can't make any guarantees. I'm doing spot job assignments here and there, one of which is hosting a trivia night at a local bar a couple of times per week. Then I drive on the weekends to make money. Still, beats the hell out of making no money at all, right?_

 _Let me know how this chapter in particular went for you. There were definitely a few scenes that were a challenge to translate into the written word (I'm sure you know of at least one), and I really hope I did a good job with it._

 _As always, the parts from the show are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. I still don't make a dime off of this, so could you compensate me by reviewing? Please?_

 _Thanks and enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Starbright Drive-In – Barstow, CA  
April 13, 2016  
11:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck and Sarah drove through the night. They ditched her Porsche before sunrise, finding an older-model Dodge in a used car lot that Sarah hotwired, and continued towards the map coordinates on Jimmy's smartphone that he copied from Cole Barker's data. But all they saw in front of them was an abandoned drive-in theater. If the coordinates were really for a Fulcrum facility to begin with. They didn't know why Stephen Bartowski had those coordinates, and they obviously couldn't ask him now since he was in the hands of Fulcrum.

"Are you sure these are the coordinates?" Chuck asked.

"As sure as I can be," Sarah replied. "The computers at that café we found weren't exactly state-of-the-art. I can't use Jimmy's smartphone or tablet; the CIA could trace them."

Chuck looked around. He saw the torn movie screens and dilapidated concession stand. "Well, it doesn't exactly look like a Fulcrum compound, does it?"

"Maybe we got the coordinates wrong. Or maybe they didn't mean anything."

Chuck looked at the ground. "No, wait. They must have just moved my father. These beer cans are fresh, there's still ash on the cigarette butts…"

"Could have been kids having a party."

Chuck sighed in frustration. "Great, now we have to go back and start all over again."

"Chuck, we're AWOL. It's why we ditched the car and drove only at night. If we go back, I go to jail, and you go to a padded cell with 24-hour surveillance for the rest of your life."

Sarah paced back and forth. "There is no going back. We have only one chance. We have to hope Casey, Carina, and Jimmy understood why I did this and help us. If Beckman doesn't throw them in jail anyway."

Chuck knelt down and looked at the pack of cigarettes in front of him. "This is my fault. I never should have gone to Roark Instruments," he said quietly. "I thought I was keeping all of you safe. I didn't want you risking your lives over a stupid hunch. And now…"

"No, stop." Sarah walked over to him and knelt down as well. "Going after Fulcrum alone wasn't smart, but this isn't your fault. If it wasn't for you, Fulcrum would have taken over the government by now. I mean, I meet you one day, and the very next day you stopped a hotel from being blown up. You saved your sister's life, got Carina to be more open, survived a number of Jimmy's crazy stunts, and helped Casey rescue his old girlfriend. And what you've done for me…"

She gently brushed Chuck's windswept hair out of his eyes. "I'd follow one of your hunches over one of Beckman's orders every single time. And I guarantee Casey, Carina, and Jimmy would do the same."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll make this work. We'll find your father and we'll stop Fulcrum. Somehow, we'll make this right. And you'll be the reason why."

Chuck turned towards Sarah and gave her a gentle smile. It was amazing how that look of confidence never wavered from her. It was little wonder why she was the government's best spy: she always had such confidence in herself and in her friends. And she had confidence in him. Through all the girlish screams, the missions, the things all of them had to do to survive and stay after Fulcrum, she always trusted him and made sure he could trust her. There were a lot of things he wished didn't happen over the last seven months. But getting to know Sarah made up for all of them and more. So much more.

He looked at the ground again, throwing a pebble at the pack of cigarettes. Sarah stood up and checked her watch, pushing a button on it. Neither of them saw that the pack of cigarettes contained a hidden camera.

~/^\~

One hundred feet below the drive-in, Stephen Bartowski gazed sentimentally at the image of Chuck and Sarah on the monitor in front of him. Since he didn't see the other members of the team, he had to assume the two went off on their own. But the whole idea behind the abandoned drive-in as a cover was that satellite recon never gave it a second thought.

"Don't give up, Charles," he said quietly as he looked at the pair.

"Cute couple."

Stephen turned around in surprise to see Ted Roark.

"You must be proud, your son dating Sarah Walker? Very pretty, I must say. I don't think much of her acting, but I wouldn't hold that against her. If I was going to hold anything against her, I'd prefer it to be…well, me."

"If anything happens to them…"

"What are you going to do? You going to…you going to kill me? You going to beat me to a pulp? I'm sure you can come up with something more creative than that."

Stephen looked at the ground. "No, you had it right. I'll kill you!"

Stephen lunged for Roark, who stepped back and watched as the chains attached to Stephen's ankles stopped him.

"Uh-oh! Forgot about that. I'm sorry. I'll tell you what. As long as the new Intersect is operational by tomorrow night, your son will be fine."

"Hold on, there's still a ton of diagnostics to run, simulations…I can't guarantee I can finish it by then."

"Well then, I can't guarantee your son's safety. Or his girlfriend's and her co-stars'. Or Ellie's and Devon's. Just something to think about."

Roark walked out of the room.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 13, 2016  
2:00 PM PDT**_

"What the hell happened?!"

Beckman had never been more upset in her life, and this mission had already tried her patience repeatedly. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were not exactly enjoying being on the receiving end of Beckman's wrath.

"Walker took us by surprise, General," Casey replied. "We never suspected she would disobey orders."

"I am sending teams after them. They are to bring back Bartowski and Walker…dead or alive."

"DEAD or alive?" Carina asked in shock.

"The safety of the Intersect is no longer my main concern."

"General, wait. Sarah went rogue to protect Chuck, not to commit treason. She may have turned on us but we can bring Chuck and her back alive. We owe them that much. Otherwise you waste a lot of resources and manpower on trying to catch your best spy. We know how she thinks. We're your best chance at finding them."

Beckman was silent for a moment. "You have twenty-four hours to bring them back. If you fail, every single agent available will have orders to kill the two of them. And you as well."

Jimmy shook his head. "Boy, you really know how to send someone out with a great attitude, boss."

Beckman growled briefly and terminated the link.

Casey, Carina, and Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief.

"OK, that's done," Carina said. "What now?"

Casey checked his smartphone. "Nothing right now."

Jimmy watched him type something on it. He shook his head.

"Snowball, meet Hell. Let's see how well you do."

 _ **Unknown Location  
April 13, 2016  
10:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck opened the door and let Sarah enter the motel room first. The room looked as depressing as they felt. Each of them carried a small bag of supplies they bought at a roadside stop, the only one they could find with no surveillance cameras. They knew they had to stay off the grid, so everything they needed had to be paid for with cash, just like the motel room in which they stood. Of course, CIA agents were trained to be ready for such a scenario from the first day, so Sarah had a decent stash of money saved up. But the money would only last for so long.

"So, um, as you can see, just the one bed," Chuck said dejectedly. "A little presumptuous, I guess. Should I have asked for separate rooms?"

"No, it's fine," Sarah replied. "As long as we're on the lam, I can't let you out of my sight."

She checked her watch, pushing a few buttons on it. She then grabbed a few items out of her bag and gestured towards the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower."

"I'm…going to assume that whole 'out of sight' thing doesn't really apply now."

She smiled and went into the bathroom.

"Right," Chuck said to himself, as if the situation wasn't awkward enough.

He took a few items out of his bag and took off his clothes, leaving him in his t-shirt and boxers. He grabbed the blankets on one side of the bed and slid into it. He then grabbed the remote and turned on the TV as he heard the shower start.

~/^\~

Outside Chuck's and Sarah's motel room, a pair of men kept watch from inside their car.

"I'm at the motel a mile south of the base," one of them said into their phone. "They just checked in. You want us to kill them?"

"No, no. I may need them for leverage," Ted Roark replied from his bunk inside Fulcrum's facility underneath the drive-in theater. "When the tests are complete, then we'll kill all of them. Just for fun, let's make Steve watch. Hmm, what would be the best order to kill them? Maybe start with the other actors, then Dr. Surfer Boy, the little bearded twerp, then Blondie, then we get to the family. Make it nice and painful. Am I being a little high-maintenance? I'm not going overboard, am I?"

"Not at all. Consider it done."

~/^\~

Chuck sat quietly in the bed watching the TV. Not surprisingly, he couldn't find anything on the television to calm him. Even a good game of _Halo_ with Morgan wouldn't shake how he was feeling right now. Two nights ago, he thought he would get the Intersect out of his head. Then he could finally relax. No more secrets, no more lying to Ellie, Devon, and Morgan, and maybe he could even put his family back together. Then they would celebrate Ellie and Devon getting married and he would spend the night slow-dancing with Sarah.

But now he was on the run. It was the only option he had. The government was going to put him in a cell for the rest of his life, if not kill him outright. And Sarah had thrown away everything she had worked so hard to accomplish in order to stop that. He still couldn't believe it. She turned her back on the government…and even her best friends…to save him. He didn't know what to feel about that right now.

And Sarah emerging from the bathroom in a tight t-shirt and tiny panties didn't help clear his head. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Chuck glanced down at the bed. He felt the awkward moment coming as Sarah approached the bed and pulled out the band keeping her hair up.

"Uh…I'll, uh, I'll sleep on the floor," he said, getting out of the bed.

"No, it's OK," Sarah replied gently as she pulled the covers back on her side of the small bed and got in. Chuck carefully slid back into the bed, and she glanced over at him. She wondered if he felt as nervous as she did. And whether it was because of being on the lam or something else. For her, it was both.

"Why are you doing this?" Chuck asked her.

"Because the floor is gross, and I'm not going to make you sleep on it."

"No, I mean why are you here? Why are you risking everything that you worked so hard for?"

She turned towards him. "Because, after everything that you've done for this country, you deserve to find your father. To get the Intersect out of your head and to have a chance at a normal life."

"What about the others?"

Sarah could feel herself tense up. "I…I hope they forgive me one day. I hope they understand I had to protect you."

"Thank you," Chuck said shyly.

"You don't have to thank me," Sarah replied with a caring smile. "It's my job to protect you."

"What about when it's not your job?"

Sarah stared at him for a long moment. She had spent so much time worrying about protecting Chuck, working with the team, and stopping Fulcrum, she never gave any thought as to what would happen once it was over. She originally thought she'd go on to her next assignment with Casey, Carina, and Jimmy, but now she was a traitor who turned her back on them. What if they still managed to find Chuck's father and get the Intersect out of him? What then? She didn't have the answer. But she knew somehow, some way, it would involve the person in front of her right now.

The smile on her face slowly faded. "One mission at a time, Chuck."

She reached behind her to turn off the light on the nightstand. She closed her eyes and went to sleep. Chuck watched her for a few moments, discovering her peaceful look gave him a feeling of serenity inside. And he wondered if there would indeed be another mission after this one.

 _ **Starbright Drive-In – Barstow, CA  
April 14, 2016  
8:15 AM PDT**_

"This is it?"

Carina looked around at the abandoned drive-in with considerable incredulity. "Are you sure you got the coordinates right, Jimmy?"

"These are them," he replied. "I checked it a half-dozen times. These are the coordinates that were in Cole's data."

Casey used a heat scanner to look over the area. "Not picking up anything hot enough to be a supercomputer. No bodies, either. Maybe they're underground out of the scanner's range."

Carina walked along the ground where the beer cans and cigarettes were. "Chuck and Sarah checked this, too. You can see the print of Chuck's Converse shoes."

"I'll look inside the concession stand," Jimmy replied. "Maybe there's something in there that will give us a clue."

Casey's smartphone began to beep. He looked at what was on it. "Belay that, Slade."

Carina and Jimmy went to Casey to see what was on his smartphone. They then took off for Casey's car.

~/^\~

Ted Roark watched Casey, Carina, and Jimmy walk around the outside of the drive-in. Fulcrum had provided him with their entire files. There was a reason why they were the best team of spies in the government, and he wasn't going to chance it.

He went to the phone on his desk. "Send teams to the motel," he said. "We have to grab his son before Walker's team can. Bring those two back here; kill the other three."

 _ **Unknown Location  
April 14, 2016  
8:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck and Sarah lay asleep in the bed. Unlike last night, when they slept with a bit of distance from one another, now they were spooned together. Chuck's arm was draped over Sarah and she snuggled inside of his frame. Her hand drifted lazily across his, gently caressing his fingers. Still not awake, his fingers gently spread apart, and she interlaced her fingers with his. She drew his hand closer to her body, holding it to her as she felt the comfort from it, the feel of safety, the feel of home. A home she never knew or even knew could exist. She never felt like this in her entire life. It was both frightening and exhilarating.

Chuck slowly stirred in the bed as he felt Sarah's hand caressing his. He took in her scent; the same springtime scent she always had since the first day they met. It was never overpowering, but you knew it was there. It felt like…it felt like taking a tour of Heaven with an angel. Given her cascading blonde hair, cerulean eyes, and supermodel frame, angel would be a very apt description for Sarah…if angels could also throw knives with deadly accuracy and beat the hell out of guys twice their size while doing some amazing acrobatics.

He opened his eyes and looked at her, amazed they were this close, this intimate. She turned in the bed, opening her eyes, and saw him looking at her. They stared at each other for a long, long moment.

Their lips crashed together as they fell into a blazing kiss.

Everything disappeared from Sarah's mind. The missions, the cons, the abuse in high school, the fear of never getting what she wanted because of who she was. All of it was gone as she grabbed the back of Chuck's head and kissed him with an unbridled passion, the feeling that simmered a few moments ago now a raging inferno. She pulled herself up as Chuck hung on to her. He held her tightly, kissing her with reckless abandon as the moment in his life so many could only dream of was upon him. The heat and electricity the two generated threatened to set the entire motel on fire.

Chuck paused for a moment as Sarah lay back on the bed breathing heavily. She looked up at him, and she saw something in those puppy-dog brown eyes she had never seen before: pure, unadulterated joy. Gone was the fear, the self-doubt, all of the things that undeniably held him back for so long. And the smile on his face…she had seen him smile so many times, and she always felt it warm her inside. That crazy optimism, his unflappable loyalty to her and the team. But the smile he bore now was Cupid's arrow, and he hit the target dead-on.

He grabbed her faced and kissed her again, and her whirlwind of feelings spiraled in exponential speed. Her legs wrapped around him under the bed. She wanted him and right now. She never wanted to make love to anyone more in her life, not even Bryce.

Chuck sensed this, too. Mostly because he never wanted to make love to anyone more in his life, either. "Don't move," he panted as he extricated himself from under the bed. "Don't move."

"OK," Sarah said breathlessly.

"Don't move. Don't breathe, don't move." Chuck got out of the bed and hopped towards the bathroom. "Stay there. Stay there, stay."

Chuck grabbed his pants and pulled out his wallet. He searched inside for the condom that was there but only came up with a small slip of paper.

 _IOU One Condom. Your pal, Morgan._

Chuck was livid. He wasn't surprised Morgan would interrupt a romantic moment; it was just in his nature. But this one?! ?!

"I'm going to kill you, Morgan," Chuck growled, crumpling the note.

He quickly put on his pants and exited the bathroom, running for the door. "Hang on," he said breathlessly, unable to believe he was in the middle of a serious Morgan-induced case of _coitus interruptus_. "I need to…"

"Hurry," she panted.

Chuck bolted out of the motel room and ran for the lobby, hoping they either sold condoms or could tell him where to buy some. A hand reached out and grabbed him, slamming him against a vending machine. Chuck found himself face-to-face with two rather intimidating individuals.

"Mr. Roark would like to talk to you," the man who grabbed him said. "Now let's get your girlfriend."

The second man trained a gun on him as the three walked back to Chuck's and Sarah's motel room. The first man held onto Chuck as he opened the door. All three entered to find no sign of Sarah. They heard the shower running. The man with the gun approached the bathroom. He pushed open the door and stepped towards the bathtub. He threw open the curtain.

A large two-by-four slammed into the side of his head, knocking him out cold. The man who held Chuck rushed to the bathroom, but Sarah leaped in through the window, sending an elbow to his face. The man tried to throw a punch, but she ducked to the side and brought her knee up into the man's stomach. The man doubled-over, and Sarah finished him off with a hard smash between his shoulder blades.

She picked up the gun on the floor and ran towards the door, grabbing Chuck in the process. "Let's go!" she shouted.

Chuck and Sarah ran for their car, but a large vehicle bounded up the driveway to block them in. A half-dozen Fulcrum agents exited and pointed their guns at them.

"Get out of the car," one of the agents ordered.

Chuck and Sarah exited the car with their hands up. One of the men took the gun Sarah had while another motioned them to enter the SUV.

A quick series of beeps came from Sarah's watch. She glanced around and spotted something in the distance. She nodded.

A single beep came from her watch. Then a second. On the third beep, she grabbed Chuck and tackled him to the ground, making sure he shut his eyes. A projectile landed in the middle of the cars and exploded, blinding all of the agents as a flash grenade went off. They staggered about as Casey threw his launcher back into his car and drove towards them.

From behind the other side of the hotel, Carina and Jimmy charged in with automatic weapons, opening fire on everyone. Sarah crawled along the ground, pulling Chuck with her as some of the agents cleared their sight. They tried to go after Chuck and Sarah, but Carina and Jimmy were on top of them. Carina swung over the hood of one of the SUVs and landed a kick at the head of one agent while Jimmy jumped to the roof of Chuck's and Sarah's car, tackling two other agents to the ground and landing punches and kicks on both of them to keep them down. Another staggered towards Sarah and Chuck, but she leaped up and took him out with a spinning kick.

Casey drove down the road from his position two hundred yards away and pulled his Crown Vic up to the scene. He quickly got out of the car.

"Your Uber driver is here!" he shouted.

Carina went over to Chuck and Sarah. "Let's go!" she shouted, pulling them towards the back seat of Casey's car. Jimmy shot out the tires on the SUV and bounded for the passenger seat. Casey looked behind him to see two more SUVs heading in their direction. He quickly got in and floored it towards the wooden fence that ran parallel to the highway. He crashed through it at sixty miles per hour and threw the car hard to the left. The car fishtailed back and forth as Casey got it under control and sped down the highway back towards the drive-in. The two SUVs followed and began to close the gap.

 _ **Starbright Drive-In – Barstow, CA  
April 14, 2016  
9:30 AM PDT**_

Stephen Bartowski continued his work on the Intersect. His two guards decided to light a couple of cigars.

"You two mind taking that outside?" he demanded somewhat less than gently. "We're in a bomb shelter?"

The two men shook their heads in annoyance but walked away from Stephen. He checked one of the monitors. He then saw a blip on the highway heading back in their direction followed by what he knew were two Fulcrum SUVs.

"John Casey," he whispered to himself. They must have found Chuck and Sarah. He had to get a signal to them before they left to let them know he was there. He scanned the network Fulcrum was using and found a link to the electronic marquee outside the drive-in.

He quickly typed a message. "Look outside, Chuck," Stephen whispered as their vehicle got to within a mile of the drive-in. "Look out the window."

~/^\~

"Carina, my bag," Jimmy said.

Carina grabbed the bag on the floor in the back and passed it forward to Jimmy. He took out a large block of C-4 and attached a detonator to it. He handed the remote to Carina, rolled down his window, and opened the door, leaning out and using the window frame to hang on. He whipped the C-4 at the road behind them. The first SUV went over it.

"Now!" he shouted.

Carina hit a button on the remote and the C-4 exploded underneath the SUV, sending it flying through the air. It landed on its engine block and exploded. The other SUV skidded out of the way, barely missing the wreck, but continued to chase Casey's car.

"Unfortunately, I only brought one of those," Jimmy said as he got back in the car and closed the door.

The other SUV closed the distance. "Slade, glove box," Casey said.

Jimmy opened up the glove box and stared in shock. "At the risk of sounding like Awesome, that's awesome," he said.

"Prep it."

Jimmy punched a series of buttons. "Ready."

Casey threw the car hard to the left and slammed on the brakes. The car spun around as Casey threw it in reverse and gunned the engine.

"Fire," he ordered.

Jimmy pressed another button, and the headlights dropped down on the Crown Vic, revealing a missile behind them. It launched and hit the SUV dead-on, causing it to explode. Casey spun the car around again, shifted into drive, and they took off.

"Oh, my God…oh, my God…" Chuck was on the border of hyperventilation. Sarah held onto him tightly. "I can't believe it. How the hell did you do that?"

"Geez, how many miracles do you have to see from us?" Jimmy said with a grin. "You're getting more demanding than J-Lo."

"No, I mean Sarah took you by surprise and then you knew…" Chuck stopped and all of it clicked in. His mouth dropped open in shock. "You planned this! Sarah PRETENDED to betray you!"

"You didn't actually believe she could take me out with a single kick, did you?" Carina said with a chuckle.

"Hey, I did knock you out with a single kick once!" Sarah growled in protest.

"Oh, please. I was drunk off my ass during that fight. You could have breathed on me and I would have gone down. You know I can take you."

"Any day, bitch!" Sarah replied, although she was starting to crack up, so the threat didn't carry much weight.

"Imagine the pay-per-view dollars we could make on this," Jimmy said quietly to Casey, who grunted in agreement and semi-approval.

"Uh, back to the first thing!" Chuck was in no mood for the team's weird sense of humor. "I still don't get why…my father!"

Chuck pointed excitedly out the window as they passed the marquee for the Starbright Drive-In. " _Tron_ , _Tron_ , _Tron_! _Tron_ , 12AM! A midnight showing of _Tron_? That was my dad's favorite movie! He must be there!"

Casey continued to drive past. "Case, what are you doing?" Chuck was upset. "We have to get my father!"

"Just the four of us half-armed and no way of even knowing how to get in there?" Casey replied. "We'd get our heads blown off. We need a solid plan to pull this off."

"We also have to let Beckman know," Jimmy added. "We had twenty-four hours to find you before we were all on the government's hit list. At least now that we know where your father is being held, we may have bought ourselves some time."

"But…" Chuck began.

"They're right, Chuck," Sarah replied gently. "We need a plan. And we need to be ready for anything. We barely got away from them just now. We can't just run right into their stronghold. We have to do this right. We'll get your father home."

Chuck looked at the ground and Sarah gently massaged his neck. She felt for Chuck wanting to get his father back, but Casey and Jimmy were right. They had been incredibly lucky so far. But luck always ran out. It was a constant in this business.

She hoped they had one more miracle left.

 _ **CIA Substation – Oxnard, CA  
April 14, 2016  
3:00 PM PDT**_

"So your decision to go rogue and betray your team was planned?"

Beckman wasn't even remotely as livid as she was 24 hours ago when she berated Sarah's team for letting her turn on them. She was shocked.

Casey nodded. "It was a gutsy play, but I knew Agent Walker could pull it off. By pretending she took the asset off the grid, it made them an irresistible target to Fulcrum. Because of her, we were able to keep Chuck safe, found Fulcrum's base of operations, and located Stephen Bartowski."

"With much appreciation to my partner," Sarah replied. "This was Major Casey's idea. He came up with the plan for me to go rogue, developed the way we would communicate, and did a lot of the work when those Fulcrum teams came after us. The credit should go to him."

Carina and Jimmy nodded in agreement to what Sarah said. Beckman stared at all five of them. A tiny smile came across Beckman's face, which for her was the equivalent of an ear-to-ear grin.

"Then you should be congratulated for such a brilliant idea, _Colonel_ Casey."

Casey stared in surprise. "Colonel?"

"Your service to the government over the past two decades has been nothing short of exemplary, but what you did here put it over the top. Congratulations, you have earned it."

Sarah and Carina looked over at Casey and smiled and Jimmy clapped him on the shoulder.

"However, the day isn't over yet," Beckman continued in a more somber mood. "We have our best thermal imaging satellite being moved into position over those coordinates in Barstow. They will analyze the area to determine the best way to level their facility. We have to destroy it before their Intersect computer is complete."

"Wait," Chuck said. "What about my father?"

Beckman shook her head sadly. "We can't wait, Chuck. If Fulcrum successfully uploads the Intersect into their agents, everything we've done over the last seven months will be for nothing and Fulcrum wins. Sarah, you and your team do whatever you can to bring him and the Intersect home, but that base must be destroyed. No matter what. Good luck."

Beckman terminated the link. "We'll start drawing up the plans," Casey said.

"Thanks," Sarah replied. Carina and Jimmy followed Casey out of the room, leaving Chuck and Sarah alone. Sarah couldn't miss the look on Chuck. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"This…" he replied, gesturing to her and then to the door where Casey, Carina, and Jimmy just exited. "Why did you do this? Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

Sarah looked at the ground. "Beckman wanted to put you in a padded cell; that part was true. And if all of us escaped together, all of us would be joining you in that cell. But by pretending to commit treason, I kept the heat off of everyone else. I knew those three could convince Beckman to let them find us. And by not telling you, maybe you could avoid being locked up or even executed. So, as far as Beckman was concerned, I kidnapped you."

"That's what I didn't want you to do!" Chuck protested. "That's why I went into RI alone! I don't want you throwing your life away for me. I don't care if it is your job to protect me. I don't want to see you get hurt!"

Sarah walked over to Chuck and looked into his eyes. "Even if it wasn't my job, I'd still do it."

Chuck stared at her, that look of confidence she exuded was now mixed with something even more. His hands grabbed the sides of her face and he pulled her to him in a fervent kiss. She grabbed the back of his head as the kiss became more and more intense. They couldn't get enough of each other as the world fell away from them, caught up in a tumult of tightly-held bodies, pressed, hungry lips, and tongues tangoing with one another. If the morning in the motel was an inferno, this was quickly becoming a nuclear blast.

It took a moment before they realized Carina was behind them, gently clearing her throat. Chuck and Sarah separated, although damned if they were going to feel embarrassed over what they just did, especially in front of the woman who really did go rogue in order to rescue Cole Barker.

"What is it?" Sarah asked, still trying to catch her breath.

"We're ready," Carina replied. "You'll love the plan. It has the perfect combination of John Casey firepower and Jimmy Slade cleverness."

"OK." Chuck walked into the other room. Sarah started walking in that direction but turned and put a finger in Carina's face.

"Do NOT…say a word," she ground out.

"Wasn't planning on it," Carina replied with a shrug. "I have no right to say anything."

Sarah nodded and continued to walk forward. Behind her back, Carina mouthed 'YEAH' and gave a couple of pelvic thrusts with a huge grin on her face.

 _ **Starbright Drive-In – Barstow, CA  
April 14, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Ted Roark walked through the bunker to Stephen's desk. He decided to ditch his standard Jimmy Buffett wardrobe and wore an expensive suit. He knew this was a big night. He would be a major player in the new government, and he could get rid of his old college buddy at the same time.

"How's my favorite underachieving, reclusive, kidnapped scientist?" Roark asked.

Stephen gestured to the Intersect cube. "It's done. There's your Intersect."

"Oh, you're a dream."

Stephen unhooked the cube from the computer and placed it in a case. "There is…one request."

"Anything that won't inconvenience me is fine. I don't care."

"Leave my family alone. And leave Sarah's friends alone."

Roark was taken aback. "You say I'm not invited to the wedding?"

"How did you know…"

"I'm involved in a major conglomerate of bad guys. Few details escape me."

Roark took the case. "Stevie, this works, you have nothing to worry about." He then sniffed the air. "It's a little tart in here. I'll send down some air freshener."

Roark and his assistant left, leaving the two guards with Stephen. He turned back to his monitor and adjusted one of the cameras monitoring the outside. He then saw a black SUV with darkened windows drive up to an area behind the theater. Based on how low the body frame was to the tires, the vehicle must have been loaded with equipment.

He smiled. He knew it was them.

"Aces, Charles," he said softly. "Aces."

~/^\~

John Casey drove the SUV behind a large gathering of scrub brush and fencing behind the theater. The team exited the vehicle armed to the teeth. Casey brandished a pair of Sig Sauer P29s, and Sarah readied her Smith & Wesson. Jimmy strapped on a very large backpack and attached his tablet computer to a clip on his belt. Carina sheathed a pair of knives and checked her automatic weapons.

"Comm check," Sarah said.

"Ready," Casey, Carina, and Jimmy replied to verify they were working.

Chuck stuck his head out of the SUV. "What, what do I…" the four turned to him with extremely annoyed looks. "…I should just stay in the car."

The four of them nodded and Chuck dejectedly returned to the safety of the SUV.

The team slipped through the scrub brush and around the fence to the back of the concession stand. Carina snuck up behind the one guard there and tasered him unconscious. Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy entered while she kept watch outside. The three looked around for a way to access the bunker underneath.

"There might be another way in," Casey said. "Maybe this isn't it."

Jimmy shook his head. "I'm picking up wireless bandwith in this room," he said, using his smartphone to scan the area. "Good stuff, too. Why set that up if the room isn't used?"

"Jimmy, look around slowly," Chuck said from the SUV.

Jimmy took a long look at the entire concession stand, making sure Chuck got a good view from the camera he was wearing. Chuck then smiled.

"Won't you gentlemen have a Pepsi?" he said.

Sarah, Casey, and Jimmy looked towards the soda fountain. Jimmy snickered and Casey growled in annoyance.

"Nerd overload," he spat.

"You and Chuck really need to stop hanging out together," Sarah said in equal irritation.

"What are you bitching at me for?" Jimmy asked in protest. "You the one who made out with the guy."

"How the hell did you know I kissed Chuck?"

"You just told me right now."

"Don't YOU start doing that!" Sarah hissed.

"Enough," Casey growled, walking over to the soda fountain, grabbing a cup, and pushing it under the Pepsi tap. Chuck was correct: a trap door slid open just to their right.

Sarah quickly walked behind Jimmy and opened his backpack, grabbing a smaller bag out of it. She then zipped it shut.

"You and Carina get moving," she told him before turning to Casey. "Let's go."

Jimmy exited the concession stand and went to Carina. They ran out to the grounds as Sarah and Casey climbed down the ladder.

~/^\~

Chuck watched the monitors and took the occasional look out of the window with binoculars. Jimmy and Carina were sneaking around the outside planting explosive devices while Sarah and Casey continued their descent. He then heard the sound of cars approaching the drive-in. He stepped out of the vehicle to see a line of fifty convertibles enter the drive-in. Each convertible had two black-suited agents sitting inside. There was little doubt they worked for Fulcrum. He observed them park in five rows of ten in front of one of the screens. All of the cars then lowered their convertible roofs.

Chuck stepped forward carefully to see a figure walk across the stage in front of the screen. It was Ted Roark.

"Welcome!" Roark announced. "I see you all found your way. Directions were good. You have all been carefully selected by Fulcrum to be the next generation of Intersect agents. More capable than any computer. More efficient than any spy in history."

He threw his fist into the air. "Welcome to the future! Can you dig it?"

Some of the cars honked their horns. "Whoah! That's not the response I was hoping for. Can you dig it?!" More cars honked their horns and applause started to fill the air. "YES! CAN YOU DIG IT?!"

Carina and Jimmy continued to sneak around the drive-in planting explosives. They heard Roark's speech.

"Fulcrum, come out to play…" Jimmy sang with a nasty grin. "Fulcrum, come out to play…"

Chuck stepped out from the bushes. "Oh, my God," he whispered. "He's going to use the Intersect to build an army."

He then heard the click of a gun behind him. "Don't move," Agent Diaz said.

~/^\~

Stephen watched on the monitor as Roark started a three-minute countdown. He was getting worried; he had no way of knowing where Chuck was or if the team was close.

He then looked behind the guards to see Sarah sneaking down the hallway.

"You fells have a cigar for me?" he asked the two guards.

"I thought you hated smoke," one of the guards replied.

"I figure if I'm going to die, I might as well see what all the fuss is about, huh?"

"All right." The guard turned and started to walk down the hallway. A boot nailed him across the face. Before he could react, Sarah clocked him with a forearm, putting him down. The other guard ran at Sarah, only to be slammed into the wall by Casey and taken out with an elbow that would easily get him a job as an NHL enforcer.

"Keys," Stephen said quickly. Sarah grabbed the keys from the agent she knocked out and tossed them to Stephen. He unlocked his leg shackles, and the three quickly exited.

"Miller and Slade are wiring this place to blow," Casey said as Sarah took several bricks of C-4 from her bag and placed them around the computers. "We have to get moving."

They ran down the hallway and climbed up the ladder to exit. Unfortunately, a group of guards with automatic weapons were waiting for them.

~/^\~

Ted Roark readied the laptop connected to both the Intersect cube and the projector. It was almost time to see if this would work. Agent Diaz led Chuck into the projection room.

"The prodigal son returns," Roark said. "Thanks for saving me the trouble of hunting you down."

"My pleasure," Chuck hissed.

"Move it," a voice called from the other direction. They turned to see Sarah, Casey, and Stephen climb up the stairs and enter the projection room with their captors' weapons trained on them.

"Great, the gang's all here. Well, two-thirds of it, anyway." He turned to the agents. "Find the redhead and Mr. One-Liner."

Several of the agents left to find Carina and Jimmy. "It's only fair that a son should see the results of his father's labor," Roark continued. "Of course, if this doesn't work, I'm afraid I have to go back to that bit where I kill everybody."

"What if it does work?" Chuck asked.

"If it does work? Well, same result, but you know, you should root for it. I mean, nobody likes a cynic. Let's get right to the countdown, shall we?"

Roark turned to the laptop and looked out the projection room at the image on the screen outside. "Five…four…three…I'm excited, huh?…two…one…"

He hit [ENTER] on the keyboard. "Casey, Sarah, shut your eyes!" Chuck shouted. They turned away while Chuck also closed his eyes. Outside, Carina and Jimmy turned away from the screen, but that only made it easier for the agents to capture them.

"Keep them closed!" Chuck warned as the images flashed on the screen. The agents in the convertibles stared at them, unable to turn away.

"Chuck, look…look at the screen," Stephen said softly.

"No, Dad, I don't want a refresh, OK?" Chuck replied quietly. "I just want this nightmare to be over."

"I know. That's why I made this for you. It's all for you. Trust me, son."

Chuck turned towards his father and carefully opened his eyes. He then turned his attention to the screen. He then froze as the images coming from the Intersect flooded his mind. He couldn't move as he saw hundreds…thousands of images.

The program shut off and Chuck passed out. His father caught him and held on to him.

"Wow," Roark said as he finally turned away from the screen. "What a rush. What a rush. I got to flash."

He quickly went to a folder filled with pictures and started leafing through them. He tried leafing through them again. "I'm not flashing. I'm not flashing! It's not working!"

"There must be some kind of a glitch," Stephen replied. "I'll have to take it back to the lab."

"No more labs! A deal is a deal! Your son is dead! Get him up!"

Some grunting and shouting was heard outside. A group of agents led Carina and Jimmy into the projection room.

"I'll start with these two first!" Roark yelled, pointing at Carina and Jimmy.

"Sir, they were planting explosives throughout the facility," one of the agents said

"Send a team out to retrieve all of them."

"We can't move them without setting them off." The man handed Roark what looked like a detonator. "But then, they can't set them off anymore, either."

Roark studied the detonator, and then he hit what looked like the switch to turn it off. "Guess this won't be doing you much good now."

Jimmy shrugged. "True, if that's how the detonator worked. Of course, there are other ways to set bombs off. Such as, the sound certain people might make when Casey bends over…"

Carina grinned and gave her most lascivious wolf whistle.

The detonator turned on, and explosions began to rock the entire area. Carina and Jimmy turned and knocked out the agents surrounding them. Sarah sent a roundhouse kick at the agent next to her as Casey head-butted another agent to the ground. Ted Roark ducked out of the projector room as Jimmy charged forward to grab the unconscious Chuck, hoisting him over his shoulder. Sarah and Carina took out the last two agents. Stephen grabbed the Intersect cube.

"Let's go!" Casey shouted, grabbing his guns and leading the charge out of the building.

The Fulcrum agents drove away in terror as Casey led everyone back to the SUV. Sarah got in the back of the SUV as Jimmy opened the opposite door and gently placed Chuck inside. Casey bounded for the driver's seat as Carina led Stephen into the passenger's seat. The SUV sped away into the night as explosions continued to decimate the drive-in.

Sarah rested Chuck's head in her lap. "Chuck, are you OK?"

Chuck blinked a few times and then bolted upward. It took him a moment to realize he was in the SUV.

"I feel…I feel different," he panted. "Lighter."

"It worked," Stephen replied, turning to him from the front seat.

"What worked?" Casey asked.

"This." Stephen held up the Intersect cube. "I programmed it to remove the Intersect from Chuck's head."

Chuck froze. He felt completely numb. "What do you mean removed?" Chuck whispered.

"The Intersect is out." Everyone stared at Stephen in absolute astonishment. "It's over. You're free, son."

Chuck stared ahead. No matter how many times his father's words echoed in his mind, he still couldn't believe it. The Intersect was finally out? No more lies, no more secrets? He could finally go home and let Ellie pester him about what he was doing and tell her exactly what it was? It was incredible.

A huge smile came across his face. Sarah kissed him on his cheek, and Jimmy grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"You did it, man," Jimmy said, giving him a hug.

"No," Chuck replied, the smile on his face threatening to wrap around his head. "WE did it."

He reached forward to grab Carina and to his right to grab Sarah. All of them stared at Casey, who grunted in aggravation. He then put his hand on top of everyone else's and Chuck grabbed the entire pile. Stephen's grin was as big as Chuck's.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 17, 2016  
8:00 PM PDT**_

Ellie paced back and forth in the apartment. She hadn't heard from Chuck for several days, and she had no idea if her father would return. She was getting married in less than two weeks and this was exactly what she didn't need right now. She was already stressing out about the wedding; stressing out about her family was wearing her out quickly.

The door opened and Chuck entered. "Chuck, where have you been?" Ellie demanded as Devon entered the room

"I've uh…I was getting your wedding present," he replied shyly.

He turned back to the door to watch as Stephen entered the apartment.

"Dad?" Ellie stared in surprise. Devon was right; her father did come back. And Chuck brought him home. She went to him and the two embraced.

"Are you staying?" she asked.

"I'm not going anywhere," Stephen replied as he held on to his daughter.

"You did great, Chuck," Devon said quietly to him. "You always come through when it counts."

Chuck smiled as he saw Ellie tear up at the reunion of their family. It was funny how neither Ellie nor Devon knew what had gone on over the last seven months. But at the end of it all, this was the day he wanted. To see his sister marry a wonderful person and for his father to give her away. And the longer he watched Ellie hug their father, the less he thought about the things that happened and thought more about the people who helped him through it.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
April 18, 2016  
3:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked into the Buy More. After resting for several days, he finally decided to pay it a visit. Morgan was almost on the verge of tears when he last visited, having accidentally put Emmett Milbarge in charge of the store and demoting Big Mike to the floor, but he really couldn't handle dealing with helping Morgan with his father kidnapped. But now he had to see how Morgan was doing. After all, if they could get the Intersect out of his head and take apart Fulcrum, Morgan's problems couldn't be much worse.

He watched Morgan walk over to Big Mike. "Big Mike, in the old country, if a man did the honorable thing and he fell on his own sword, his family was looked after."

"That was a good break," Big Mike replied. "Real nice deal."

"Yeah. Will you look after my mother?"

"I will."

Morgan looked towards Jeff and Lester along with Big Mike. "Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure serving with you. If you retell the story, do me a favor and give me a better physique."

"What are you doing?" Emmett asked behind Morgan.

Morgan turned to him, removed his wireless headset, and slapped it into Emmett's hands.

"Morgan, out."

Morgan walked towards the Nerd Herd desk, stripping his Assistant Manager vest, tie, and shirt. He went to Anna. Everyone looked on in shock, especially Chuck.

"Anna Wu, will you come to Hawaii with me, where I will learn the ancient art of hibachi?"

"Morgan, I thought you'd never ask," she replied, leaping into his arms and kissing him hard. Morgan carried her towards the front door, stopping by Chuck.

"Morgan, what…what?" Chuck was completely floored. And he was fighting for his very life only a few days ago. "Uh, a little hot in here, buddy?"

Morgan put Anna down and clutched his aching back. "It's a bit…chilly. But, you know, worth it."

"Is everything OK?"

"No, yeah. Yeah, dude. For the first time everything is…is fine. It's all over."

Chuck couldn't help but smile. "What about you?" Morgan asked him.

Chuck's smile grew even wider. "Same here, buddy. Same here."

Morgan hugged him and took Anna's hand, heading out of the store. All of the employees started clapping, led by Big Mike.

"You're free, Morgan! You're free!" Lester shouted.

 _ **Osteria Mozza – Los Angeles, CA  
April 24, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck looked over the entire rehearsal dinner. So many people laughing, enjoying themselves, and they would never know what he had been through in the last seven months. But Sarah was right. It didn't matter. The government knew what he did, and they were grateful to him and Sarah's team for defeating Fulcrum and recovering the Intersect. Life felt normal again.

Although looking over at the people who joined him in the limo, he couldn't say it was completely back to normal.

He had grown so close to Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy since meeting them, inviting them to Ellie's rehearsal dinner was automatic. Although Casey did need a little prodding, two words convinced him to RSVP: open bar. He watched as Carina and Jimmy talked with Ellie's and Devon's friends, even posing for pictures. They were reticent about attending, afraid the attention would be taken away from Ellie. But Ellie insisted they go, and they were in no position to argue.

He looked across the room at Sarah, who was talking with Ellie. It was amazing how well those two got along. He may have been the reason for them knowing each other, but he knew firsthand how hard it was for Sarah to open up to anybody outside of her team. And in such a short time, Ellie became as much of a sister to her as she was to him. He didn't know what was next, what he wanted to do. But it sure as hell wasn't returning to the Buy More, especially after seeing Morgan walk out like that. Maybe it was time to go back to Stanford, perhaps attend graduate school. He didn't know if he could afford to do it, but he had to believe the CIA had a bit of pull and would reinstate his Electrical Engineering bachelor's degree.

In the end, he didn't think it was important what he wanted to do next. But what was important was who would be there.

Sarah walked over to him, looking as beautiful as ever in a dress that matched the color of her sapphire eyes. He hoped she didn't mind the goofy smile on his face. Based on the way her eyes lit up at seeing him, he guessed she was OK with it.

"Hi," he said nervously.

"Hi," she replied.

"You…you look amazing," he said, gesturing at her.

"Chuck, you've said that at least a dozen times tonight."

"Well, it bears repeating. I mean, have you seen you?"

Sarah grinned. "OK, fair enough." She straightened his tie. "And you look very dapper."

She slid her hand down his chest as she finished. "So how does it feel?"

"It…feels great, actually. Like everything is finally real."

Sarah stepped closer to him. "It is real."

Chuck smiled, and Sarah held out her hand. Chuck gently closed his hand around her wrist and slid down to hold her hand. They looked over to see a few couples dancing to the music playing in the background. They walked over and put their arms around each other, dancing and enjoying themselves.

 _ **Unknown Location  
April 24, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

A shaky hand held up a single thumb on a deserted road when they heard the truck approaching. They hoped the driver would stop. Spending all this time in the desert with no food or water was quickly becoming unbearable.

The truck stopped and the driver opened the passenger door. "Where you headed?" he asked.

"Burbank," Ted Roark replied, still in his suit from when his attempt at uploading the Intersect failed. "I have a wedding to go to."

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 25, 2016  
10:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck walked into the hotel room. It looked like everyone was packed and ready to go. He knew this day was coming, but it still felt like a sad occasion, like the last day of summer camp.

"Good, you're here," Sarah replied. "Beckman's waiting for us."

Sarah initiated a videoconference with Beckman. "Once again, team, congratulations," she began. "Thanks to all of you, the Intersect is once again safely in the hands of the government, Fulcrum is defeated, and Stephen Bartowski has been rescued.

"Thank you, General," Sarah replied.

"Chuck, what are your plans for the future?"

"Well, I was going to get a good champagne buzz going on at my sister's wedding followed by what I hope is a lot of nice, extra-long slow dancing with my date," Chuck replied, looking over at Sarah with a grin.

Beckman was not amused. "Vocationally speaking?" Chuck asked. "Oh, that. No, nothing, nothing lined up just yet."

"Over the past seven months, you've shown more promise than just about any asset we have in our intelligence community, and we'd like you to continue to work with us. Your country is calling you, Mr. Bartowski."

Chuck looked back and forth. "Uh, well then I think my country might have the wrong number, 'cause I'm just Chuck Bartowski, not a hero."

Everybody looked over at Chuck, and what he just said did not sit well with any of them.

"Very well," Beckman replied. "Colonel Casey, you have shown amazing talent, intelligence, strategic skill, and bravery for over two decades in the service of your country. We need you to pass your considerable knowledge and wisdom on to our next generation of agents. I am transferring you to Langley. You'll be responsible for making sure we have the best spies anywhere in the world."

Casey was stunned. "Um, I was under the impression the team would be moving on to the next assignment. We'd start filming the new season of the show after Comic Con."

"That will not be happening, Colonel. I have decided to disband the team and cancel _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_. All of you will put your talents to use in other areas."

Now everybody was stunned, including Chuck. "You're breaking up your best team?"

"I have not come to this decision lightly, Mr. Bartowski. Agents Miller and Slade, you will be given new field assignments in a few weeks. For now, both of you are on vacation."

"And…and what about Sarah?"

"I am putting Agent Walker in charge of the new Intersect project."

"The NEW Intersect project?"

"We have been trying to build our Intersect since Fulcrum destroyed the old one, and thanks to your father creating the Intersect cube, it is now almost complete."

The door opened. "And this time, the Intersect goes in my head," the person entering said.

Everybody turned to the door. As if Beckman's announcement wasn't the anvil dropped on top of their heads already.

"Bryce?" Sarah asked in shock.

"Walker and Larkin. Together again," Bryce replied.


	25. How Many Times Do You Have To Be a Hero?

_Hello again. I got quite a number of reviews for the last chapter, which I do appreciate. I was a bit surprised, however, that some people weren't happy with how much I stuck to show canon in the chapter. I had thought it was the right thing to do to not mess too much with one of the best stories of all time from the show, so I didn't want to make any major changes. As for the team being broken up, I'd imagine most people are thinking two things: 1) it will be a bad decision, and 2) they won't stay apart forever. After all, you can't keep a good team down. But just to warn you, things get worse before they get better._

 _Also to warn you now, this chapter definitely follows show canon for the most part. A change here or there, but that's probably why I got it out a little faster than previous chapters. And everything in this chapter that came from the show remains the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. Although if I ever win the Powerball jackpot, I'm going to do something to fix that._

 _I'm hoping to have the next chapter out before the end of the month, but there are a lot of details I have to hammer out. I'm actually working a lot of side jobs that almost total a full-time job when you put them together. I'm trying to make 2016 better (although the tragedy in Orlando hit our family too, sadly). I'm reminded of Al Pacino's speech from "Any Given Sunday." Right now, there's a lot of clawing with fingernails for that inch, but hopefully it'll be the difference between winning and losing._

 _Enjoy the chapter, and please leave reviews. Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 25, 2016  
10:15 AM PDT**_

Chuck, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy looked on at Sarah and Bryce, still not believing the bombshell Beckman just dropped. Bryce was going to receive the Intersect? And far, far more shocking: she was breaking up her best team?

"General, this doesn't make any sense," Chuck protested. "These people helped you take down Fulcrum! Why would you break up a group of people who were so successful?"

"BECAUSE they took down Fulcrum," Beckman crossly replied. "The TV show cover was Director Graham's idea, not mine. The team only needed to stay together so long as you needed to be kept safe and Fulcrum was still a threat. And now neither of those are the case. I need someone to partner with Agent Larkin in this new Intersect project, and who better than the person he was partnered with for so many years. And Colonel Casey can accomplish ten times more by training our newest recruits here in D.C. All of them were agents before they ever joined the team and were quite successful. Breaking up the team doesn't change that fact."

"But…"

"Mr. Bartowski, I have made my decision."

"How do you even make this happen?"

"We will leak rumors to the press that Agent Walker is leaving the show for "personal reasons." And that she decided to stop dating you for the same reason. Without Jen Burton, there is no show. We'll give the fans a chance to say goodbye at Comic Con in July. Agents Miller and Slade will get new identities and be given remote assignments so they aren't easily recognized. And Agents Walker and Larkin will busy themselves putting the new Intersect to good use."

Beckman terminated the link. Everyone stood around looking at each other, none of them knowing what to say.

"We should get ready, Sarah," Bryce said quietly, carefully avoiding saying anything else.

Chuck, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy left the room. Bryce watched them leave before turning back to Sarah.

"They'll be fine. They're good people," Bryce said. "You guys did great work."

"Yeah, we did," Sarah replied in an almost ghostlike tone.

"But with the Intersect in a proper agent, the work we'll do will make history. In a few days, we'll be in Zurich."

Sarah stared out into space, the enormity of what had transpired over the last several minutes completely overtaking her.

"Excuse me," she said, exiting the conference room.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 26, 2016  
10:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck growled as heard the knock on the door. He hadn't had much of an excuse to go out…or leave his bed, for that matter…since yesterday's news. He was grateful the Intersect was out but the result of that was making him sick to his stomach. The team didn't deserve this, not after everything they did.

Chuck opened the door to find Casey waiting for him.

"This is for you," Casey replied, handing him an envelope. "It was overnighted to the L.A. office."

"What's exactly is this?"

"It's your pay packet, numbnuts."

Chuck glared at Casey as he opened the envelope. He peeked inside. "Hi-ho! Whoah!"

"You know, if you were a true patriot, you wouldn't even cash it."

Chuck gave a little smile to that. It was a very Casey-like comment. "Casey, thank you for saving my life at least once a week."

Casey grunted in the affirmative and shook Chuck's hand. Chuck pulled him in for a hug.

"See, guys can hug," Chuck said.

"Not if they don't have their man-parts," Casey hissed in response.

"That's a good point." Chuck quickly terminated the hug.

Casey did continue to shake Chuck's hand. "You've done good work here."

"Thank you."

Casey reached into his pocket and found a business card. He handed it to Chuck. "In case of emergencies. My personal number."

He then grabbed Chuck's fingers. "But your fingers better be on fire when you're dialing."

"OK, got it," Chuck winced in pain. Casey started to walk away. "Case, wait! You…don't you want to stay for the wedding?"

"Not my thing," Casey replied a bit softly. "Plus Beckman wants me back in D.C. right away. Congratulate your sister and Devon for me."

"What about Carina and Jimmy?"

"Miller's leaving on our jet tomorrow. Three guesses as to where. I don't know about Slade."

Casey left, and Chuck looked down at the ground. Ellie's wedding would be tough enough tomorrow with him having to pretend things were still OK with Sarah. But he had really hoped the rest of the team would stick around.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 26, 2016  
1:30 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked through the courtyard of his apartment complex carrying the tuxedos for his father, Devon, the groomsmen, and himself. They would get ready at the apartment tomorrow morning. Devon's parents had flown into town a few hours ago and Honey Woodcomb was already driving poor Ellie crazy getting her ready for the ceremony. Ellie had a room in the same hotel where their honeymoon suite awaited them tomorrow night after the reception. Despite her strong objections to how grandiose the ceremony had become, she wanted to keep a tradition or two, such as not spending the night before with Devon. Their honeymoon in Paris would begin early next week.

"Carina, hi," Chuck said, surprised to see her waiting for him. He opened the door to let her in. He walked in and went to the closet, putting the tuxedos inside.

"Armani? I'm impressed," Carina said, looking at the tuxedos.

"A little present from Awesome's dad. He's kind of a clotheshorse and insisted on passing that down to his kids."

Carina smiled at that. "So, how are you doing otherwise?"

"I'm…I'm good." Carina wasn't buying it. "I…still can't believe this is happening."

Carina shrugged. "I don't like it, either. But this is the life we chose. I mean, we were lucky to even have what we had for the last six years. And this past seven months with you was the highlight."

Chuck smiled at that. He could say the same about being with them. "So, what's next? Gonna wing over to London and jam with the Stones?"

She gave a little laugh. "Oh, they don't party much anymore. Although Keith can still kiss, even at his age."

Chuck shuddered at the thought of Carina making out someone more than twice her age. "But I assume you're going to meet up with…"

Carina nodded. "I've got some time off, and I haven't been to the UK in a while. It'll be good to see Cole."

"I'm glad for you," he replied quietly.

Carina looked at Chuck for a moment. "Don't give up," she finally said. "This could still work out."

"What can?" Chuck asked, but Carina gave him a look. "Yeah, but what is there to do? She'll be off with Bryce…"

Carina shook her head. "She'll come around. As has been proven over and over, it's a bad idea to bet against you. Just be patient."

She hugged him. "Congratulate Ellie and Devon for me. I'm sure I'll see you sooner rather than later."

Carina exited the apartment.

 _ **Hilton Hotel – Universal City, CA  
April 26, 2016  
5:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck entered the lobby of the hotel and almost missed seeing Jimmy walk out of it.

"Jimmy, wait!" Chuck called out. Jimmy turned around.

"Hi, Chuck," he said quietly. He then reached into one of his bags and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Chuck. "I was going to drop this off at your place, but since you're here…"

Chuck looked at the envelope. It looked like a card that was addressed to Ellie and Devon. "What is this?"

"Just a little wedding present."

"You're not coming to the wedding tomorrow? I figured Casey wasn't up for it, and we all know where Carina's going, but I thought you'd want to be there."

"I just…I have some things to deal with. Give Ellie a big hug for me. And take care of yourself."

"But she really wants you…"

Jimmy continued to walk out of the hotel. Chuck stared in disbelief.

 _ **First United Church – Pasadena, CA  
April 27, 2016  
1:30 PM PDT**_

Chuck walked through the church watching the setup for Ellie's and Devon's wedding. The string quartet was settling in and organizing their sheet music. The groomsmen stood around and made sure their outfits were just right. His father looked nervous as hell. Chuck found that a bit humorous given the danger they had been in a week ago. Devon looked as scared as any groom would right before his wedding, which Chuck couldn't believe. This was the same person who had climbed Mt. McKinley, skied more black diamond-rated slopes than he could name, and had a dozen parachute jumps under his belt. Yet he looked like he was an hour away from taking his toughest exam in medical school. Actually, compared to today, that was probably a cakewalk, too.

Chuck walked to the bridal chamber down the hallway and knocked on the door. Honey Woodcomb answered, looking like she had been doing her best imitation of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from _Full Metal Jacket_.

"I just wanted to talk to my sister for a minute," Chuck said to Honey.

"It's bad luck to see the bride…" she barked.

"It's fine," Ellie called from inside the room. "I don't believe in that stuff."

"All right, just get in, get in."

Chuck walked up to his sister, who was positively radiant in her wedding gown and veil.

"Hi," she said nervously, checking herself in the mirror to make sure not a single thing was out of place. "What?"

"Look at you," Chuck said, beyond impressed. "Ellie, your dreams are coming true."

"If it were up to me, I'd have a small ceremony on the beach. Sand between my toes, people I love. But we all make sacrifices for family, right?"

"One, two, three…" Honey counted the bridesmaids. "Where the hell is my blonde?"

Ellie turned in Honey's direction and sighed. "I sent her out to find you. Think you can…"

"I'll get her," Chuck replied. "It was so nice of you to ask her to be a bridesmaid. And very brave, given how much the press follows her."

Ellie laughed at that. "Well, I'm sure if the press was really that interested, we would have been hip-deep in them already."

Ellie gave Chuck's face a gentle caress. "I made my dreams come true, Chuck. What are you gonna do about yours?"

Chuck turned and exited before the smile on his face disappeared. There wasn't anything he could do about his dreams. They were leaving to run the new Intersect project and be with Bryce Larkin. He wished like hell he could do something or say something to convince her to stay, but he knew she had to be a spy first. And the history she had with Bryce did make her the best candidate to partner with him. But right now, he felt even more lost than he did when he left Stanford.

"Chuck?"

Chuck shook his head clear. Sarah was standing right in front of him.

"They're waiting for you inside," he said quietly.

"Actually, Ellie sent me to find you. She wanted to make sure you had the rings, but you…"

"Yes," Chuck replied, reaching into his pocket and holding out Ellie's and Devon's wedding bands. "Got them right here."

"Good." She straightened his tie. "You look like a real spy."

"Thanks," Chuck whispered, unable to meet Sarah's gaze. "You look like a real bridesmaid."

The tension between the two was worse than when they were both doused with the truth serum.

"Chuck, I…"

"Thank you…for coming to the wedding." Chuck could feel his emotions threatening to boil over. "Good for the cover."

He walked away quickly. Sarah turned and watched him go, a few tears coming to her eyes. She thought she couldn't feel worse than she did when she found out the team would be disbanded and she would leave Los Angeles, but she was wrong.

~/^\~

Chuck walked into the banquet room where dinner would be served following the ceremony. He found a bottle of wine and took a drink, not even caring at this point if he made it through the ceremony sober. He wasn't in a mood to celebrate anything. He couldn't even envision what would happen once they had Sarah 'dump' him and cancel the show. He'd be right back to where he started. No girlfriend, no future, nothing.

He slumped down into one of the chairs but felt something at his feet underneath the table. He bent down and lifted the tablecloth.

"Oh! Oh, my God!" he whispered in fear at seeing two waiters underneath, both dead from gunshot wounds to the heart.

He bolted upward…and Ted Roark sat down in front of him.

"I believe we've met before," Roark said.

"Ted Roark?" Chuck asked in complete horror.

"No, _I'm_ Ted Roark. You're the CIA agent who's in deep trouble. By the way, congratulations on your sister's happy day. Love the gown."

"What the hell do you want?" Chuck growled.

"Oh ho, there's no need to curse," Roark flippantly replied. "You know damn well what I want."

"I…"

"I want the Intersect cube."

"I…I can't, I can't, I can't give you that."

"Oh, you'll find a way, I'm sure."

Roark started to get up from the table, grabbing Chuck's bottle of wine. He then turned back to Chuck. "Oh, sorry. I forgot the threat part. If you don't deliver that cube within a half-hour…forty minutes tops with traffic…I'm going to kill the bride."

He checked the label on the bottle of wine. "Nice," he said calmly as he walked away, leaving Chuck shaking in fear.

Chuck ran out of the reception hall and toward the church, looking for Sarah. He almost ran right past Morgan.

"Chuck," Morgan began. "Can I talk to you real quick? I'm just feeling a little nervous."

"Buddy, I'm so sorry, I can't talk right now," Chuck quickly replied and started going towards the bridal chamber.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! What's the matter? You could tell me, I…might be able to help."

"It's uh, it's uh…" Suddenly Chuck had an idea. "It's the rings. I have to go home and get them. Find Sarah, pull her aside, and specifically tell her that I forgot the rings."

"The wedding is in twenty minutes. Ellie is going to kill you!"

"Thanks for that," Chuck retorted, as if he wasn't in enough trouble already.

"Unless…I stall the wedding. OK? No one will even know you're gone. They'll just blame me. It'll be fine."

Chuck wasn't expecting that. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course I would, dude. You've saved my ass a million times. It's about time I saved yours."

Morgan pushed him towards the exit. "Go, hurry."

Morgan took off for the bridal chamber while Chuck ran for his car scrolling through his phone. He had to hope and pray one of them…all three if he was lucky…would be there.

Morgan turned the corner and approached the door to the bridal chamber, only to be stopped by Woody Woodcomb, Devon's father.

"Dr. Awesome?" Morgan said.

"Don't take another step," Woody commanded. "My wife warned me about you."

"Good warnings, I hope?"

"Retreat two steps back."

Morgan was not finding this fun. "I need to get in there."

"You…"

The door opened. "Dr. Woodcomb," Sarah said. "Your wife wants me to tell you to go to the car and get backup hosiery. Does that make sense?"

"Man my post," he replied. "Don't let this one in."

"Yes, sir."

Woody left. "Sarah, listen to me," Morgan said. "Uh, Chuck forgot the rings, so he-he went home to go get them."

"He what?"

"Yeah, the wedding rings. He blew it. I have to stall the wedding." Morgan was dumbfounded. "How do I stall a wedding?"

Sarah's surprise was quickly replaced by the realization Chuck must have been in danger. "Do it, Morgan. By any means necessary."

"Right, right." Sarah ran off, leaving Morgan there. "How the hell do I stall this wedding? Think, man, think!"

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
April 25, 2016  
3:05 PM PDT**_

Chuck ran up to the conference room and pounded on the door. "Bryce! Bryce! Please tell me you're there!"

Bryce opened the door. "What's wrong?"

"I need the Intersect cube!" Chuck said in a panic.

"It's gone. It's with the new Intersect."

"Where? Where is it?"

"Chuck, you know I can't tell you that. It's top secret. Not even Beckman…"

"No, I need it, Bryce. I need it. My family's in danger. Ted Roark and his Fulcrum team are at the wedding. He's going to kill Ellie unless I bring him the cube."

Bryce shook his head. "Roark can't have it."

"No! He's going to murder everyone!"

"No, you're going to give them me."

Chuck stared at him. "They still think you're the Intersect."

Bryce nodded. "They kept looking for me, even after what happened last Thanksgiving. The cube can't fall into the wrong hands. I made a promise to Orion."

"You…you knew?"

"That was the deal. Your dad knew I protected you at Stanford. I was the only spy he would trust at first. But as I worked with the others, he learned to trust Case and Carina and especially Sarah. And I'll just bet he had a hand in making sure Jimmy was the one to replace me when Fulcrum got too close and I had to leave."

Chuck shook his head. "I can't believe you've known this whole time."

"He wanted to keep you out of this. But I knew you could handle the Intersect, and I knew Sarah and the others would find you and keep you safe. But most importantly, you deserved to know the truth about your father. He's a hero."

He grabbed his gun, loaded it, and attached a silencer to it. "Now, let's go get your sister married."

 _ **First United Church – Pasadena, CA  
April 27, 2016  
3:10 PM PDT**_

Honey Woodcomb walked quickly to the front of the church where Stephen and Woody were waiting for the ceremony to start.

"What's the holdup?" Woody demanded.

"Uh, the bride is perfect," Honey replied. "She'll only wilt from here."

Devon joined them. "We can't find Chuck."

"Oh, and the blonde is gone, too," Honey added.

That set off Stephen's alarm bells. "Sarah?"

"Yeah."

"Just now?"

"Yes."

Stephen looked at Devon. There was no way in hell Chuck and Sarah would hold up a wedding unless something terrible had happened. "Excuse me," he said, quickly walking out.

The Woodcombs watched Stephen depart. "This is a really weird family," Woody muttered.

Sarah opened the door to the reception hall slightly, taking a peek inside. She saw Ted Roark and a handful of armed Fulcrum agents posing as waitstaff.

"Sarah, something's wrong," Stephen said, walking up behind her. She motioned for him to stay quiet as she closed the door.

"Ted Roark and his men are inside."

"He's alive?" Stephen asked in disbelief, to which Sarah nodded. "Did you bring a gun?"

"I'll think of something. Check the chapel and the bridal chamber. Make sure there's nobody else."

"Wait," Stephen replied. He pulled his tuxedo sleeve back to reveal his wrist device. He scanned a blueprint of the building. "Use the southeast entrance through the kitchen."

Sarah nodded. "OK, thanks."

Devon, Honey, and Woody turned at the sound of a microphone being turned on. Morgan was standing in front of the altar.

"Hello," he said, tapping the microphone a few times to make sure it was on. "Uh, I'm Morgan Grimes: unofficial member of the wedding party. Uh, so, uh, we have some pre-wedding entertainment planned for you guys."

Honey looked like she was about to have an embolism and Woody stared in shock.

"So without further ado, I present to you…JEFFSTER!"

Jeff and Lester walked up to the stage. "Dude, we got the perfect song," Lester whispered to Morgan as he lowered the microphone stand to his height, and Jeff passed out sheet music to the string quartet.

"OK, this is in 4/4 time. It's in D. Watch me for the changes," he told them as he readied his keytar.

Jeff began to play as Lester got ready to sing.

 _Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto  
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto  
Mata ahoo Hima de  
Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto  
Himitsu wo Shiri tai_

Devon ran to Morgan and grabbed him. "Morgan you are ruining my wedding!"

"Listen to me! If you hit me, know that it only teaches me to hit," Morgan quickly replied. "OK, now for reasons I cannot say, I HAVE to stall this wedding!"

"Tell me why," Devon demanded, throttling Morgan in the process.

"Because Chuck is in trouble, and I'm saving him, man."

"Chuck told you to do this?"

"Yes."

Devon looked at Jeffster! in confusion. He had no clue what Chuck would do to warrant this, but Chuck almost always had a good reason for doing what he did.

"OK," Devon replied quietly. Whatever the reason was, it had better be epic.

Inside the bridal chamber where Ellie and her bridesmaids were waiting, she tried to remain calm. And then she heard the music. "OK, no Sarah. And that is definitely not the wedding march. Um, could one of you please go see what's going on out there? NOW! Thank you, thank you."

She took deep breaths to calm herself. "Focus on the calm."

~/^\~

Sarah slipped into the reception hall through the kitchen, staying behind the large stacks of wedding gifts. She ripped the bottom of her bridesmaid's dress off to make herself more mobile. She pulled down one of the gifts and opened it, hoping to find something that could be used as a weapon. She then tried a second box, and a third, but she came up empty each time.

~/^\~

 _I'm just a man who needed someone  
And somewhere to hide  
To keep me alive, just keep me alive  
Somewhere to hide to keep me alive_

Woody walked up to Morgan and Devon breathing fire. "Devon, why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding?" he growled, taking a drink from a flask he was carrying.

"Dad just…chill out, OK?" Devon replied angrily.

~/^\~

Ted Roark walked up to the wedding cake and admired it for a second while Sarah continued to sneak along the floor out of sight, opening gifts to find a weapon.

"You know what? I'm feeling a bit peckish." He grabbed a knife and prepared to cut a piece.

The door opened. "Don't you dare!" Chuck yelled. "If you ever want to see the Intersect again, you will NOT touch anything in this room. Do I make myself clear?"

"Chuck," Sarah whispered in fear. This was exactly what she didn't want to have happen.

"Today is my sister's wedding day, and believe me, you don't want to see her angry."

Roark tiredly dropped the knife back on the table next to the cake. "Where's the Intersect, Chuck?"

"Uh…about that…"

Roark rolled his eyes. "Kill him," he ordered.

"Ho! Ho, ho, ho down! I mean hold on! Just hold on a second, all right?"

"Finally," Sarah sighed in relief as she uncovered a set of steak knives.

"I did bring… _an_ Intersect with me," Chuck said.

" _An_ Intersect?" Roark inquired.

"Mr. Roark…"

Bryce walked into the room and all of the Fulcrum agents trained their weapons on him. Roark was impressed, to say the least.

"Bryce Larkin. The human Intersect."

A Fulcrum agent closed and bolted the doors behind Bryce. Bryce spotted Sarah and gave a quick nod, which she returned. She readied the steak knives.

Bryce stepped forward with his hands in the air. "Roark, you want me, you have to let Chuck and his people go. We leave, they stay. Nobody else needs to know."

Roark nodded. "Terrific plan. Thing of it is, Fulcrum wants Chuck here dead, no matter what."

Roark turned to the agent next to him. "So with that said, shoot Mr…"

"Sarah, take him!"

Sarah flung a knife at that agent, nailing him dead-on. Bryce dove for Chuck as Roark and the Fulcrum agents took cover. Chuck and Bryce crawled behind the gift table as Sarah continued to throw the steak knives, making every one of them hit. Bryce opened fire with his gun.

"No, no!" Chuck shouted as the shootout intensified. "Oh, God! Not the flowers!"

Roark kept down as his men continued to fire away. "Not the centerpieces!" Chuck yelled.

Bryce fired again and ducked back under the table. "I'm dry," he told Sarah. "Any more knives?"

"Nope. I threw all eight," she replied.

"Get up," a Fulcrum agent ordered the three, pointing an assault rifle at them. All three of them stood up with their hands raised.

"Oh, God," Chuck said, looking around at the carnage that was Ellie's wrecked wedding reception. "Someone just shoot me now."

"I can help you with that, Chuck," Roark replied with a smug look on his face as he took a shotgun from one of the Fulcrum agents. He looked it over. "Mmm, a real shotgun wedding."

He aimed it at Chuck. "Just think," he said confidently. "That terrible pun is the last thing you'll ever hear."

Roark cocked the gun. Then the entire hall was surrounded by what sounded like a helicopter just above it. Everybody stared to look around in confusion.

The windows shattered along the west end of the room. Casey dropped in on a zipline in full tactical gear and opened fire at the Fulcrum agents with a Heckler & Koch MP5K.

The windows shattered along the east end of the room, and Carina dropped in with an Uzi 9mm, firing away.

The double doors at the south end burst open and Jimmy came charging in, unloading on the Fulcrum agents with a pair of MAC-11 machine guns. He reached behind him and pulled out two more, tossing them to Sarah and Bryce.

Sarah pushed Chuck back to the ground as the team went on the offensive. They quickly gained the upper hand, shooting the Fulcrum agents dead, and Ted Roark looked around in shock. What was certain victory mere seconds ago was about to become a resounding defeat. He crawled between the tables and headed towards the exits.

Bryce moved forward to shoot at an oncoming agent, but another one stood up, ready to fire at him. Chuck kicked the chair next to him at that agent, knocking him off-stride and making him miss. Bryce turned and heard the noise, quickly shooting the agent Chuck nailed.

"I take back what I said earlier," Bryce said in appreciation. "You ARE a proper agent."

Casey, Carina, and Jimmy finished off the last of the Fulcrum agents as Ted Roark ran for the door…and right into Stephen Bartowski.

"Hello, Ted," Stephen said with a grin…and knocked him out with a single punch. "Waited twenty years to do that."

Chuck slowly stood and surveyed the damage. He turned to Casey in shock.

"You rang," Casey countered.

Chuck and Sarah ran out into the hallway just as Ellie walked out of the bridal chamber. She noticed Chuck's disheveled look and Sarah's ripped dress.

"Chuck? What happened?"

"Uh, everything's alright, Ellie. There was just a minor…centerpiece problem," Chuck replied.

 _The time has come at last  
(Secret, secret, I've got a secret)  
To throw away this mask  
(Secret, secret, I've got a secret)  
Now everyone can see  
(Secret, secret, I've got a secret)  
My true identity, I'm Kilroy, Kilroy, Kilroy, Kilroy_

Lester finished singing and Jeff grabbed a pair of Roman candles and set them off. The heat and flames set off the sprinkler systems and the fire alarms. Everybody ran out of the church as they were inundated with water. Chuck, Sarah, and Ellie could only stand there in shock as they were soaked as well.

Ellie's attempts at calm were gone as she saw everybody run out of the church. "Wedding cancelled," she cried.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 27, 2016  
3:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck couldn't move. He could barely breathe. It was like the last scene in a horror flick when you thought you had the killer dead to rights, only to have them come back and take you out. If he felt pain before from Sarah leaving and the team breaking up, what happened in the church increased it a hundredfold.

"This is officially a disaster," he said, barely able to keep the tears in check. "I can't believe that my spy life has wrecked my real life. Again. I've completely ruined my sister's wedding day."

"I'm sorry, son," Stephen gently replied, although he felt as bad as Chuck did right now…if not worse. "I…if anyone knows how you feel, it's me. You had no choices, Charles. You saved her life."

Chuck looked at the ground, not feeling comforted in any way by that fact, and someone knocked on the door.

"Hey," Sarah said softly as she entered Chuck's bedroom. "Are you OK?"

"No, I'm not," Chuck said, feeling his entire body shake. "I'm not OK. I don't want to have to save my sister by having a group of government agents on 24-hour speed dial. I just want to be a normal guy…who helps his sister in normal ways. Like right now, if I could give her anything in the world, I would…"

Chuck froze. It then dawned on him. He _could_ give her anything in the world.

"Excuse me." He went to his desk and opened up the top drawer where his check from the government was. He smiled and showed it to Sarah. "I think I might know how to fix this."

Sarah looked up at him. The look on his face was something she missed badly in the last few days. She saw the energy return to him.

"You got time for one more mission before you take off?" Chuck asked her.

Sarah looked at the check and grinned. "It's not what a normal guy would do."

She stood. "You go talk to Ellie; I'll get the team together. This is going to be our best mission yet."

Sarah quickly exited. Chuck and Stephen watched her depart. "Trusting her was the smartest thing I ever did," Stephen said with a smile. "I'll go see what I can do to help."

Stephen left and Chuck went down to the bathroom. He knocked on the door.

"Ellie, are you all right?"

"Chuck, please just go away," she said, still in her wedding gown and her face streaked with tears as she drank from one of the wine bottles from the reception in the bathtub.

Chuck opened the door slowly and entered. Seeing his sister in pain like this hurt him to no end. And knowing he was the reason for it made it all the worse. But it was time to right an egregious wrong.

"I can't believe your idiot friends ruined my wedding. I'm just…I'm never going to forgive Morgan for this."

"Well, I think you're going to have to," Chuck said in a fit of massive guilt. "Because Morgan and Lester and Jeff, they only did what I asked them to do."

Ellie was stunned. "What?"

"I did all this. I forgot your rings, so I told them to stall. So if you're going to be mad at someone, you should be mad at me."

Ellie stared into space, trying to process what Chuck just told her. "Please say something," he begged.

The tears began again. "You…ruined…the most important day of my life?"

"Look, Ellie, you have to trust me, OK?" He handed her the wedding bands. "Here, you take these, and I'll take care of the rest, OK? Just trust me. Trust me."

Chuck quickly left to find Sarah.

 _ **Malibu, CA  
April 28, 2016  
2:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck and Stephen stood at the back of the seats set up on the beach and Ellie stood between them in a beautiful Vera Wang white dress. Devon waited at the front with the bridesmaids…including Sarah…and the groomsmen. Unlike yesterday when he was nervous…and then devastated when the ceremony was ruined…he was now all smiles. This was the wedding Ellie wanted. He only wished he had stood up to his parents and eschewed their obsessiveness for a big ceremony. But given the tears Honey was shedding and the proud look on Woody's face, Devon figured he'd be forgiven.

Chuck and Stephen escorted Ellie up the aisle on the beach, which was adorned with rose petals. Chuck looked around and couldn't believe it. Sarah was right; this was the best job Casey, Carina, Jimmy, and she had ever done. The permits to have the ceremony along the shore in Malibu were handled in hours thanks to Casey's connections, Carina was able to obtain beautiful new bridesmaids dresses and very sharp suits for the groomsmen, and there was plenty of food and drink waiting for them back at the courtyard in the apartment thanks to Jimmy getting that ready.

"We are gathered here today to join Eleanor Faye Bartowski and Devon Christian Woodcomb in matrimony," the Justice of the Peace began. "Who gives this woman in marriage to this man?"

"We do," Chuck and Stephen said at the same time. Ellie smiled and gave each of them a kiss.

"Love you," she said to Chuck and Stephen.

Chuck and Stephen led Ellie over to Devon and then took their places. Sarah looked over at Chuck, who still had the same smile he did yesterday when he decided he could save his sister's wedding.

And it made her smile. It made her happier than she ever had been in her life. She had accomplished so much in her career, but none of it compared to how things had been since being put together with these people. These fellow agents…John Casey, Carina Miller, Jimmy Slade…who became the greatest friends she ever had. And then to meet Chuck. He was supposed to be just a regular guy, someone who got all the secrets of the government uploaded into him. But he was so much more than that. He was beyond anyone she had ever encountered. Someone who wore their heart on their sleeve and went to such great lengths to help others. And he was as true of a friend to her as anyone she had ever met. Through all of the danger, the suffering, and the heartache, they made it to this day together. She couldn't imagine giving all of this up to reunite with the man who broke her heart three years ago just to be part of the best spy team in the world.

" _A partnership should not be entered into lightly but with much consideration. If any person can show just cause why they should not be joined, let them speak now or forever hold their peace."_

"Sarah," Bryce said into his communicator. He looked out at the ceremony from a distance with a pair of binoculars. He focused on Sarah. "You're not coming with me, are you."

" _Do you have the rings?"_

Chuck gave the rings to Ellie and Devon as Sarah looked out at the rocks where she thought Bryce would be.

She shook her head.

Bryce was crestfallen. What Sarah told him at Thanksgiving was true: she was a different person these days. And he was ready to not take her for granted like he had before. But he knew he was too late. Sarah wanted someone else. She deserved someone better. But if there was a bright side for him, he knew how good that someone better was.

"Take care of him for me," he said quietly into his communicator. He then walked away.

Ellie and Devon put the rings on each other's fingers, and the Justice of the Peace declared them to be husband and wife. They kissed to thunderous applause from everyone, especially Chuck and Stephen.

 _ **West Century Blvd. – Los Angeles, CA  
April 28, 2016  
2:30 PM PDT**_

John Casey sat in the passenger seat of a transport van as it headed to a private hangar at LAX. Ted Roark would be handed off to a team of NSA agents, who would fly him back to Washington D.C. Three members of his old unit were guarding Roark in the back, and Miles, one of his best protégés, was driving the vehicle. Roark's trial would likely be kept silent. If he detested being on the show, he couldn't even fathom how much press there would be if Roark's crimes were made public.

"Wow, what a crappy life you lead, sir," Miles said, who was driving the transport vehicle. "Fire guns on-stage, all those groupies."

"Gimme a break," Casey growled quietly. "I'm glad it's done."

"Wait, there's no season seven?"

"Hey, keep it quiet. Nobody's supposed to know. But yeah, I'm going on this flight to D.C. to work at Langley."

Miles grinned. "As an instructor? In the classroom at 0900 and on the first tee by 1300?"

"Something like that," Casey muttered. He could live without the show, but teaming up with Walker, Miller, and Slade for the last several years gave him so many chances to do good. He'd miss that…and them. He'd even miss that pain-in-the-ass nerd Bartowski, but he admired Chuck for his work, especially for getting his sister her wedding back.

The engine started grinding. "Uh-oh," Miles said.

"Better pull over," Casey replied.

Miles pulled the vehicle over and opened the hood. Casey went to the front of the van to inspect the engine. Miles walked to the back of the vehicle and unlocked the door.

"What's going on?" one of the men asked him.

"Nothing you'll need to worry about," Miles replied. He pulled out a silenced revolver and shot the three Marines dead. Roark looked around in shock and then breathed a sigh of relief, assuming Miles worked for Fulcrum.

Miles aimed and shot Roark in the chest.

Casey heard the muffled shots and ran around to the back of the van to see Roark and the Marines dead.

"Don't!" Miles warned, coming around from the other side pointing his gun at Casey. He pushed Casey against the side of the vehicle and moved his hands above his head. He kept the gun trained on Casey as he removed Casey's weapons.

"Sorry, sir. We've been through a lot," Miles said quietly.

"How long have you been with Fulcrum?" Casey snarled.

"I'm not with Fulcrum."

"Go ahead and pull the trigger. I don't want to look at your face. You just killed three Marines in cold blood."

"Yeah," Miles replied in agreement. "But none of them saved my life."

Miles took his gun and hit Casey in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. He went to the front of the van and undid what he had to sabotage the vehicle in the first place. He then drove off to dispose of the bodies.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 28, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

The reception was in full swing. Chuck looked around and couldn't believe how beautiful the courtyard looked. Jimmy had done a great job getting it ready and making sure the caterers and bartenders had everything perfect. Chuck wanted to thank him, but he was nowhere to be found. He said goodbye for a second time to Carina earlier, who delayed her flight to help fix the wedding. And Casey was escorting Ted Roark back to D.C., so he hoped he would have a chance to thank him later.

"Thank you," Ellie said as she walked up to him.

"For what?"

"For what? For all of this! For my wedding gift. This is…I don't know you did all this."

"Well, I can't…I can't take all the credit…"

"First the beach and now this. I don't know. You're pretty amazing, little brother. Sometimes I think you have superpowers."

Chuck laughed nervously at that. "Yeah, I wish."

"I know."

"Chuck!" Devon walked up to Chuck and Ellie and handed his wife a glass of champagne. "Man, you saved the day. Looks like you're the big hero. Thanks, bro."

"Wow, now I really am your bro."

"Yes you are," he replied with a grin."

Ellie and Devon went to talk to other guests as Chuck spotted Morgan in the middle of the courtyard. He walked up to him and put an arm around him.

"I can't believe you're actually leaving me."

"All right, don't, Chuck," Morgan replied. "I'll cry."

"Well, we don't want that, do we." Chuck tipped his glass of champagne at him. "I'm happy for you, buddy. I think you're going to be the greatest hibachi chef in the world."

"I don't know, man. This whole 'making your dreams come true' thing is hard. And the bigger the dream, the harder it gets. You know, on one side the girl you love. And on the other, life as you know it…"

Chuck tuned out for a moment as he saw Sarah across the courtyard, looking her usual beautiful self. He missed that smile of hers, that laugh. It had come back yesterday, ever since the two of them were determined to put Ellie's wedding back on track. He knew first-hand she was someone who could do practically anything, and she proved that again by making this happen. She needed to be out there helping Bryce. Chuck felt a bit selfish for thinking she could give up saving the world just to be with him.

"…it's just friends and family and a job you can't stand. I don't know, man. I should just go with Anna, right? But then I, uh…I'm overthinking this, right?"

Chuck shook his head clear and returned to the present. "Yeah, yeah, you are. Go with your heart, buddy. Our brains only screw things up."

Morgan nodded in agreement and Chuck walked across the courtyard to Sarah.

"Where's Bryce?" he asked her.

"Gone," she replied. "They're uploading him with the new computer tonight."

Chuck nodded. "Off to save the world. I guess both of you are."

She looked at him. "You want to dance?"

Chuck knew that answer. This was his last night with Sarah and after everything they did to put this wedding back together, he had every intention of enjoying it.

"You know I do."

They walked out to the dance floor and held each other closely. Behind them, Bryce watched with considerable sadness, taking a look at what he could have had if he hadn't been so foolish.

"Mr. Bartowski," Bryce said as Stephen walked up to him. "Or is this an Orion conversation?"

"A bit of both," Stephen replied. "I reconfigured the cube for you under two conditions: you stop looking for me, and you leave my son alone."

"We asked Chuck to be on my team and he said no."

Bryce straightened up. He had a job to do. "Goodbye, Orion."

Stephen grabbed his arm. "You made changes to the Intersect, to my initial designs. The data architecture is different. What does this new computer do?"

"You don't want to know," Bryce said gravelly.

A man came up to Bryce. "Agent Larkin, it's time to go." Stephen looked at the man.

He then saw pictures of the man in his mind and a document saying the man in front of him was presumed to be dead. As Bryce and the agent left, he staggered, holding his head in pain. He almost passed out. He straightened himself out and shook his head clear.

Chuck and Sarah continued to dance in the middle of the courtyard, their faces pressed against each other.

"You belong out there, Sarah," Chuck said quietly. "Saving the world. I'm just…I'm just not that guy."

Sarah smiled and held him more tightly. "How many times do you have to be a hero to realize that you are that guy?"

"I want more, Sarah. I want a life. I want a real life." He began to shake. "I'm…what you and the others do…I…that's not me. I'm not this…saving the world…"

She looked him in the eyes. "Chuck, I don't want to save the world. I want…"

"Chuck, Chuck!" Stephen ran up to them out of breath. "The agent that came for Bryce, he isn't a CIA agent. He's…he's supposed to be dead."

Chuck and Sarah stared in skepticism. "Dad, how could you possibly know that?"

"I…screw it. I have an Intersect in my head." Chuck and Sarah's skepticism quickly turned to shock. "After what happened with Jimmy, I tried to figure out what went wrong. I…tested it on myself. I wasn't going to risk anybody else. But the intel was good. That man isn't CIA."

"Bryce," Chuck whispered in fear. "Bryce is getting the upload tonight.

"They're going to kill him. They'll download the Intersect into their team instead."

"Well, if they know about Bryce, they know about Casey…about all of us," Sarah said.

She quickly left the courtyard. Chuck started to follow her but Stephen stopped him. "Let her go, son. You've done your part."

"But I have to go!"

"No, no you don't. You're not a spy."

Chuck looked right at his father. "Dad…I love her."

Stephen looked back at him. He feared the worst, but he knew Chuck wouldn't stop. There was too much of him in his son.

"I can't follow you, son, but take this." Stephen removed his wrist device and handed it to Chuck.

Chuck took the device and hid it under his coat. "Thank you," he told his father.

"Be safe, Charles."

Chuck got into his car and floored it to the hotel. He got upstairs in time to see Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy exit the conference room armed to the teeth. Casey held an ice pack to the back of his head and looked ready to kill.

"Hey, I'm coming with you," Chuck told them.

"Stay here, this is not your mission," Casey growled.

"Wait, this is the Intersect we're talking about and I'm a Bartowski!" He showed them his father's wrist device. "You need me."

The four looked at each other and nodded.

"Let's go," Chuck said. The team quickly exited the hotel to head towards the Intersect.

 _ **Unknown Location – Los Angeles, CA  
April 28, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Bryce walked down the hallway in the basement of the facility led by his escort.

"Did you see her?" Bryce asked the man. "Agent Walker?" The man nodded. "She was amazing, right?"

"Yes, sir," the man replied.

They reached the door to the Intersect room. "She loves another guy," Bryce said. He shook his head as he typed in the code to open the door. "Bad day to be me."

"You have no idea," the man replied, aiming his gun at Bryce's head. Bryce stared at the man, not completely shocked this happened.

"Mr. Larkin," Miles said, coming from the other direction with several enemy agents.

Bryce gave a little smile and spun, grabbing the wrist of the man next to him and firing his gun. He then turned both of them, using the agent as a human shield as Miles and his men fired back. Miles charged down the hallway guns blazing as Bryce slipped inside the Intersect room and sealed the door. Miles tried to punch in the code on the keypad but was denied access.

"Open this door!" he ordered.

The team made it to the front of the building and discovered a trio of security guards shot dead.

"They're already here," Casey whispered.

Chuck quickly accessed the building's blueprints on his wrist device and found the path to the Intersect room. He pointed forward, and the team moved in that direction. They went slowly down the hallway. Casey turned the corner to see a group of agents working on the lock. They opened fire on them. Sarah kept Chuck back while Carina and Jimmy moved up to open fire on the agents.

Chuck checked his wrist device. "Bryce must be in the vault! And they have another half-dozen running this way!"

"Jimmy and I will cut the others off," Carina said.

Chuck quickly typed on his wrist device. "Go back down the hall and into the vents! You'll take them by surprise!" Carina and Jimmy sprinted down the hallway.

"Chuck, go get help!" Sarah yelled as Casey and she took out a few more agents. Chuck ran back towards the entrance. He passed underneath an air-conditioning fan and suddenly had an idea. He pulled up the schematics for the vent system on his device and found a path that would lead into the Intersect room. He grabbed a chair, stood on it to rip the grate off, and pulled himself inside the ventilation system.

The remaining agents with Miles continued to fire at Sarah and Casey. Eventually Sarah and Casey ran out of ammunition and were surrounded by Miles and his agents.

Chuck dropped down inelegantly into the Intersect room with a painful thud. He looked around at the stark white walls. He saw the lone computer in the center with the Intersect cube attached to it underneath.

He then turned and spotted Bryce. "Hello, Chuck," Bryce said weakly, sitting just inside of the room.

"Bryce," Chuck said breathlessly. "Sarah and Casey are pinned down just outside."

"I'm on it," Bryce replied and tried to get up, but he was in too much pain. He moved his left hand to see the gunshot wound in his stomach.

"Oh, my God, Oh, my God, Oh, my God, you've been shot."

"Yeah. I'm really sorry about this, Chuck."

"No! No, it's OK, it's OK! You're going to be fine. It's not that bad."

Both of them took a look. It was bad. It was very bad.

"Take care of her," Bryce rasped.

"Don't…don't' say that! You're not dying, man. She needs you, OK? You…you guys are going to go on missions together and do exciting things and save the world. You'll be a team again; it will be great!"

Bryce shook his head gently. "She wasn't going to come. She wants…" Bryce clenched as the blood loss worsened.

"Come on. Hold on, hold on, hold on."

Bryce reached into his coat pocket and took out what looked like it could fit into the disk drive of the computer. He handed it to Chuck.

"This will destroy the Intersect. This new computer is too powerful. It's too dangerous."

"But…but you need the computer to fight Fulcrum."

"Fulcrum doesn't matter, all right? They're just one part of the Ring. They'll use it against us, Chuck. You have to do this. All right? You have to destroy that computer and then get out of here."

"But you can beat them, you're a real…hero, Bryce."

Bryce fell to the side and moved no more.

"Bryce?" Chuck whispered in horror, but Bryce no longer responded, his eyes staring out at nothing. "Oh, my God."

Chuck felt himself losing it. His best friend, the one who he thought got him kicked out of Stanford but actually relied on him to keep the Intersect safe, was dead. He shook uncontrollably, tightly gripping the disk Bryce handed him to destroy the Intersect.

He tried to push those feelings back down. He would have to mourn later. Right now, the Intersect computer had to be destroyed. Chuck ran for the computer and took a look at it. He saw the slot where he could insert the disk and destroy the computer. But then he saw the handprint on the table that would activate the computer and he saw the message on the monitor.

 _Do you wish to activate?_

The last seven months began to flash through his mind.

" _I can't figure out why Bryce did this, why he chose me."  
"You can do anything…I've seen you in action."  
"You can't put him out in the field. He won't survive!"  
"You may not be a spy, but you're certainly no coward."  
"You're better than that, Chuck. A lot better."  
"It's a bad idea to bet against you."  
"I'm just Chuck Bartowski…not a hero."  
"How many times do you have to be a hero to realize that you are that guy?"_

He breathed in and out a few times. He then put the disk down and placed his hand on the pad to activate the Intersect. The lights in the room began to turn off row-by-row. The sound of electronics and fans and beeping began to fill the room. The Intersect cube began to spin underneath the computer.

 _Activation complete._

The room filled with thousands of images, completely surrounding Chuck. He saw all of them, completely hypnotized by them, unable to look away or even blink. His eyes darted back and forth at blinding speed to see the images flicker by.

The images stopped, the lights came on, and Chuck fell to the floor. He grabbed the table to hang on and tried to catch his breath. He struggled to pull himself back up. He took the disk Bryce gave him and inserted it into the drive. The computer began to spark and he stepped back. Electrical surges traveled along the walls and through the Intersect cube, shorting it out. The monitor cracked and lost all power. The Intersect was destroyed.

The door slid open, and Miles entered. "What did you do?" he demanded. He then raised his gun. "WHAT did you do?"

Chuck turned to him. "I destroyed it. You're too late."

"For that, you'll die last," Miles snapped as he went to the Intersect computer and inspected it. His men entered with Sarah and Casey in handcuffs.

Sarah looked to her left. "Bryce?" She ran to him and tried to shake him. "Bryce!"

Two of Miles' men dragged his body away. "NO!" she screamed. "Don't you touch him!"

One of the other agents aimed a gun at Casey and her, moving them back. She looked at Chuck, who mouthed "I'm sorry" to her.

"There's nothing left," Miles said angrily.

"So you lose," Casey said in triumph, glad to see some revenge was had against a traitor.

"You should know this," Miles retorted. "No one can stop us. No one ever has."

"Who are you?" Sarah demanded.

"Spies, Agent Walker." Miles aimed his gun at her. "The best."

Chuck suddenly began to flash. The flash was completely different than the flashes he felt before. There were no files on these agents, no plans for weapons, just sets of instructions he felt go through his entire body.

"Sir, you should look at this," one of Miles' men said, gesturing to Chuck. Miles went over to him and all five pointed their guns at Chuck, who appeared to be staring into space.

"Chuck, did you just flash?" Sarah asked.

"He uploaded it," Miles concluded.

"Oh...Chuck me," Casey whispered in astonishment.

"Kill him!" Miles ordered.

Chuck reached out in both directions and chopped the weapons out of the hands of all of Miles' men, scattering them across the floor. One tried to send a roundhouse kick at him but he ducked out of the way. Another tried to trip him but he backflipped twice to avoid them.

He looked at his hands in complete amazement. _How the hell did I do that?_

He looked over at Sarah and Casey, both of whom were stunned silent. He then got over his shock and went after Miles' men, somersaulting past one and landing a hard punch at the chest of another. He threw punches at two others on either side of him and chopped a third in the back of the neck, spinning and knocking another one down. He sent a spinning kick at one man and kept throwing punches and chops to put them down. He ducked out of the way of a man trying to kick him in the head and stomped on the guy in front of him. He grabbed the wrist of one man, threw a punch at the man behind him, then flipped the first man through the air and to the ground. He clotheslined the last one to the ground as Miles came after Chuck. Miles tried to throw punch after punch, only to have Chuck block each one. He sent a chop to Miles' throat to send him back and then put a hard kick into him, sending Miles crashing into the wall and to the floor.

Chuck looked around at the bodies lying around him. He was in absolute shock.

"Uhh…" Casey said in equal shock.

The doors opened, and Carina and Jimmy entered. "We got the others, and…" Carina said but stopped when she saw Chuck standing around a bunch of bodies on the ground. "Um, what did we miss?"

Chuck turned to them, completely unable to speak.

"Chuck?" Sarah said.

"Guys…" Chuck whispered, completely out of breath. "I know kung-fu."

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 29, 2016  
12:30 AM PDT**_

Sarah quietly walked through the courtyard. The reception ended a couple of hours ago and the food, drinks, and decorations were gone. She figured Ellie and Devon were at the Four Seasons by now in the Honeymoon Suite enjoying their evening, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy stayed behind to process the remaining enemy agents. But she wanted to see how Chuck was doing. What he did tonight…she still couldn't believe it.

She knocked on the Morgan Door and entered his room. To say she was shocked at what she saw was putting it mildly.

Chuck was sitting on the edge of his bed, curled up with his arms wrapped around his body and his knees drawn to his chin. He was shaking uncontrollably and there were tears in his eyes.

"Chuck?" she said softly.

"What did I do? What the hell have I done?"

She sat on the bed and put her hands on his arms. "What's wrong?"

"I went there…I wanted to go with all of you tonight because I thought I could help. Then I stared at Bryce while he died, and everything that happened went through my mind. I uploaded the Intersect. I thought I had to do it to be somebody. I did what I thought everybody wanted me to do."

He shook even harder. "But you didn't want this. You wanted out of the spy life. That's what you wanted to say earlier, wasn't it. You didn't want to save the world; you just wanted to live your own life. And now I've destroyed that, just like I destroyed Ellie's wedding. You…you didn't deserve what happened tonight. You shouldn't have to spend your life babysitting some delusional nerd. You're so beautiful and amazing and…you deserve to live the life you want. And I took that away from you. You shouldn't…"

Sarah lunged at him and kissed him hard, gripping him as tightly as she had ever held anyone in her life. She pulled him down onto the bed, kissing him with every last ounce of energy she had.

She grabbed his face and her sapphire eyes bore into his. "What I want is you, Chuck. I love you. Since you fixed my phone and started defusing bombs with computer viruses. I love you, Chuck. I've been in love with you from the day we met but I was too afraid and too stupid to take the big risk to be with you. But no more."

She pulled him up and held him in her arms. "Ellie was right. I have to be willing to give all of this up for someone I love. I'm done with this. I'm done with the show, I'm done with the government, I'm done with being a spy. All I want is you."

Chuck stared at her in utter amazement. He couldn't even breathe.

"Chuck, please say something because I'm really starting to feel like a fool right now."

The look of astonishment slowly morphed into a wide-eyed smile. Chuck grabbed her face and kissed her hard. She wrapped her arms around him as the two shared such a passionate, loving moment.

"I've always been in love with you, Sarah," Chuck said, his puppy-dog brown eyes twinkling. "From the moment I met you, I've been in love with you. And I always will be."

A few tears of joy came to Sarah's face as the two continued to kiss, holding each other tightly. Their passion became more and more heated as they began to take each other's clothes off.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
April 29, 2016  
8:00 AM PDT**_

Sarah yawned and stretched in the bed. She never woke up to a happier morning in her life. Not that she got that much sleep the night before. Chuck and she couldn't get enough of each other. Seven months of pent-up frustration and pretending flew away in one night as the two made love over and over. It was a night she had dreamed of for years, before she even knew she desired such a night as this. A night where she could stop pretending, stop lying, and just be the person she wanted to be, not the person that was needed for the mission.

She saw Chuck enter the room and smiled. "OK, I don't know how you got all of this information on me, but it's scary."

Chuck grinned as he put down the tray containing a pair of chocolate croissants and a carafe of Sarah's favorite coffee. "Well, I may have done a little research. You are aware your cohorts know as much about you as you do about them, right?"

He poured her a cup and placed one of the croissants on a plate. "I was saving this for a special occasion."

"I'm pretty sure last night qualifies," Sarah replied with a grin. "In fact, I may owe you a few more 'specials' for this."

Chuck laughed, and it was the most melodious sound Sarah had ever heard. His smile then faded. "I'm…I'm so sorry about Bryce."

Sarah looked down at the ground and nodded. "Thank you. It…it's still so hard to process. I mean, I know I haven't been in love with him for a long time, but I…I can't…"

Chuck put his arms around her. She shook as her grief over Bryce's death resurfaced. "It's OK," Chuck gently whispered in her ear. He held onto her until she stopped shaking and looked up again. She gently caressed his face and pulled him to her for a kiss.

"You were always good at that: being a friend when I needed one," Sarah whispered.

"Hey, you deserve all the friends you can get. It took me all of one day to figure out why the four of you got along so well. Even Casey. And I think we'd both agree he's not exactly Mr. Warm & Fuzzy."

Sarah quietly laughed. "They wanted us to be together. I think even John did."

Chuck nodded in agreement. "Carina told me as much the other day. She said you'd come around eventually. I guess I was thinking a few months or a few years from now."

"Nope. Not anymore," Sarah said confidently. "This is the life I want now. A life with you."

"So do I. But how do we get it?"

"I have some money saved up. Every agent is taught to be ready for this kind of scenario. And thanks to Carina and Jimmy, I have several sets of IDs and credentials and even a few credit cards that are untraceable. The government doesn't even know about them."

"What about the public? You sort of stand out in a crowd, especially being one of the most famous actresses in the world. And an incredibly beautiful one at that."

She smiled at the compliment. "We'll have to figure that out as we go along. Maybe we'll go somewhere where the show isn't as popular. There are a few beautiful locales in Europe I haven't seen in ages."

She got out of the bed and faced Chuck. "Charles Irving Bartowski, do you agree to quit the spy life with me?"

He grinned. "I do. Sarah Walker, do you agree to quit the spy life with me?"

"I do."

He smiled. "Oh, wait right here."

Chuck ran into the kitchen to grab something out of one of the drawers. He ran back to the bedroom.

"Here we go," he said as he pulled a twist tie from the box of plastic bags he found. Sarah laughed and held out her hand. Chuck put a twist tie on her ring finger. She then reached for a twist tie and put it on his ring finger.

"By the power invested in me by the state of insanity, I now pronounce us unemployed and in love," Chuck said.

Sarah grinned and leaped into his arms, kissing him intensely, wrapping her legs around him in the process.

"So, where should we go?" Chuck asked.

Sarah got a devilish look in her eyes. "Right now, about two feet."

She pushed him down the bed and got on top of him, kissing him and teasing him with her tongue as the two began to get worked up again. They held each other as their passion intensified.


	26. Needing a Vacation From Your Vacation

_Well, here we are. I promised I would put Chuck and Sarah together faster than the show did, and I very much appreciate all of the positive reviews of how it happened. Actually, I'm surprised nobody guessed this would be the point I did it. But then, maybe you were trying to not ruin it for anyone else, so thank you if that was your thinking._

 _Of course, the real work begins. We are fully AU now, although I'm sure you'll notice elements of "Chuck vs. the Angel de la Muerte" and "Chuck vs. the Honeymooners" in this chapter. And we also get to see how everyone has reacted to being on their own. Some will definitely handle it better than others._

 _I have a pretty good idea how I want this to end, but getting there still has quite a few elements up in the air that I'll be working on, so any suggestions you have are welcome. You'll see setups for a couple of items in this chapter, and previous chapters hinted at future elements as well._

 _NOTE: One f-bomb in the chapter. And it isn't exactly played for laughs this time. But I'm sure you'll get by._

 _As usual, the parts that come from the show are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. It may take time to get the next chapter out because of some temporary work assignments I have picked up for just after the Fourth, so I hope you're patient. And I also hope you continue to review._

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Grand Hôtel – Stockholm, Sweden  
May 4, 2016  
8:00 PM CEST**_

The man walked down the hallway, heading towards the large suite. He opened the box on the cart he was wheeling. He took out a very sharp knife and used a stone inside the box to hone it to its sharpest perfection. He took it in his hand and knocked on the door. A man answered.

" _Tack_ (Thank you)," Chuck told the room service attendant, taking the knife. "M _aten är fantastisk_ (The food is fantastic)."

" _Ha en underbar kväll, sir_ (Have a wonderful evening, sir)," the man replied.

" _Och kom ihåg_ (And remember)…"

The attendant nodded. " _Ingen av er är här_ (Neither of you are here)."

" _Tack_."

Chuck shut the door and handed the knife to Sarah, who used it to cut a few pieces of bread from the loaf that accompanied their dinner.

"OK, that will take some getting used to," Chuck said as he pointed out the window.

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, sampling some of the bread and taking a sip of wine.

"It's eight at night and it looks like mid-afternoon outside. And this is only May 4th! What do people do around here when summer starts and they want to go to bed at ten and it's still bright sunlight out?"

Sarah laughed. "You just talked with the room steward in perfect Swedish and _this_ surprises you?"

"But that's the Intersect doing that." He pointed at his head. "That foreign language stuff is all up here. I've never been out of the United States in my life. To me, afternoon sun at this hour is so cool! OK, Miss I've-Traveled-the-World-on-the-Taxpayer's-Dime?"

"I think we'd both agree the taxpayers got a decent return on their investment."

"You're right," Chuck conceded, gently stroking her cheek and giving her a kiss. "Nobody ever looked hotter kicking ass than you. I mean, you certainly saved my life enough times."

"You're welcome," she replied, kissing him back.

"So…how does it feel?"

"It feels…it feels so wonderful," Sarah said, as relaxed as Chuck had ever seen her. "Everything feels so much simpler now. There's no stress, there's no worry. This is how I wanted things to be."

She wrapped her arms around Chuck. "And you're the person I've always dreamed of being with."

Chuck gave her a smile, that same smile that always made her feel like all of her hard work and risk was worth it. "This feels just phenomenal to me, too. I mean, I still can't believe it happened. To be in a place like this. And with you, of all people. I mean, do you even get how amazing of a person you are? And a caring one. And…extremely beautiful. I..."

Sarah frowned. "What is it?"

"Sorry. It's…it's stupid…"

"No, tell me," Sarah replied, gripping him more tightly.

"I…just can't figure out what I did to deserve someone as perfect as you."

Her smile was as bright as it had ever been. She held his face gently in her hands. "You were Chuck Bartowski. And believe me, I'm lucky to have someone as incredible as you. You're the man that I love."

She pulled his face to her and gave him an ardent kiss, her fingers lightly running through the hair on the back of his head. Their kisses continued to get more and more fervent.

 _ **Mayfair, London – United Kingdom  
May 5, 2016  
11:00 PM BST**_

He walked down the darkened alley, his senses at full alert. He knew the three men were here somewhere. They were the ones who held the smoking gun, the ones who were selling explosives and armament to terrorist groups who had infiltrated the U.K. in the last seven years. Their group didn't care about their fellow citizens: their purpose in life was the almighty pound…and how much of it they could get.

It grated on the man, the fact that MI-6 had to spend so much more time dealing with terrorists in their homeland than overseas. But then, he had been around the world in the last eight months in just about every exotic locale imaginable, so he certainly had it better than a lot of his fellow agents, some of whom had lost their lives on their own home soil since ISIS upped the ante.

He had managed to put himself in position as a middleman; he had the direct connections to several groups both in the U.K. and overseas. And he quoted a reasonable price to these men to do their work for them. They took the bait. Now he just had to wait for them to bring out the goodies.

He saw the three slowly approach his location. One of them carried a large suitcase. He hoped that was the C-4 that he promised to deliver to a terrorist network operating an hour outside of Damascus. The man described his plan for making the transfer without giving them too many details. Being too helpful, after all, would have tipped them off.

"Good evening, Mr. Hartnell," the man said to the leader of three.

"Mr. Baker, Mr. Tennant, this is Mr. Thomas Jones," Mr. Hartnell said to the two men with him. "He's about to make our lives much easier."

"I aim to please," Jones replied.

"Show us your plans to get this to Damascus."

"Let's see the money."

Hartnell stared at Jones for a moment. He then took out his smartphone and opened up one of his banking applications. He set up a transfer.

"Enter the account number where you want the money to go," Hartnell told him, handing Jones the smartphone.

Jones took the phone and entered the account number. He waited until the app confirmed the transfer of money before handing it back to Hartnell.

"Very well," Jones replied as Hartnell handed the smartphone to Baker. Tennant moved forward with the suitcase and Jones took out a tablet computer.

"We'll ship it through a freight company in Brighton, who will mark it as humanitarian supplies," Jones said, showing a map of the docks in Brighton. "My contacts with the UN relief effort will then intercept the package and bring it to your customers in Syria."

Hartnell looked back at Baker, who gave him a raised eyebrow. Hartnell looked past Jones and nodded.

Three more men appeared in the alley, all of whom pointed their guns at Jones.

Hartnell took the smartphone back from Baker and showed Jones the picture of him on it.

"Mr. Barker," Hartnell said with a tiny smile. "Agent Cole Barker, MI-6. I must generate a lot of respect in British Intelligence if they sent you here to get me. It really is a shame you get around the world a lot. Plenty of opportunities for you to be on security cameras in so many places."

Hartnell reached forward to search Cole, taking his gun and pointing it at him. "I'm afraid your career as an agent is about to become a little less successful."

Cole stared the man in the face, his eyes never wavering. The man got ready to pull the trigger.

Two shots were fired, and two of the men behind Cole fell to the ground.

Cole lunged forward and grabbed Hartnell's wrist, spinning around and putting his hand over the gun. He used it to shoot the third man as Carina Miller jumped out from her hiding place. She sent a spinning kick at Baker and doubled-back her foot, knocking him to the ground. Tennant swung the case at her but missed as she did the splits and dropped to the ground. He tried to go after her but she flipped back into the air, nailing him with an elbow. She grabbed the case and slammed it into his face, taking him out.

Cole brought his elbow up into Hartnell's face, knocking him back. Hartnell sent a kick to connect with Cole's head, which dazed him. Hartnell tried to attack, but Cole sidestepped him, giving him a kick to the back of the head and sending him forward. Carina and Cole stood side-by-side as Hartnell turned back with an evil grin. He went for his gun.

Cole grabbed the gun behind Carina's back and fired, shooting Hartnell between the eyes.

Cole then turned to Carina and looked in approval at the tight blouse and micro-miniskirt she was wearing.

"If this was the show, would this be the point where we'd make a joke about you being dressed to kill?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Carina smiled. "I'm surprised you went for the gun behind my back. You made a lucky guess one was there. I figured you'd drop to the ground and grab the one on my thigh."

"I didn't want you to interpret anything as foreplay."

Carina grinned and wrapped her arms around Cole's neck, giving him a heated kiss, her tongue teasing his. "Mmmm, just think what you owe me right now for saving your very tight ass. Again."

Cole gave her a pouty look. "Don't I get credit for taking out Hartnell? He tried to kill both of us."

"Uh-uh. I got four and you got two."

Cole gave a little exhale and reached down. "You don't even have a gun on your thigh," he said in a smooth voice as he checked…very slowly.

Carina raised an eyebrow as she started to get worked up. "Keep searching. I'm sure you'll find something you like," she purred, kissing him hard.

 _ **Qalat, Afghanistan  
April 30, 2016  
9:00 PM AFT**_

The figure took a small towel from their satchel and wrapped their hand in it. They then punched out the small window to the basement of the hospital. They had to act fast: their smartphone showed only fifteen minutes until the time the drone strike would take place. The intelligence the person obtained showed that this building was used for storage of weapons but the U.S. Navy thought it was simply a warehouse. Three dozen patients and ten doctors and nurses were here. They had to be evacuated, and quickly.

They found the control box for the fire control system. They crossed the wires and activated the alarms. They had to send the correct code: the one that would prompt the staff to evacuate the patients rather than seal them in their rooms.

And it was a success. The doctors and nurses coordinated the efforts to get everybody out of the hospital. Many of the patients could walk out on their own, and the ones who couldn't were wheeled out on gurneys. The local police authority got the patients and staff a reasonable distance away from the hospital as they readied a gas detector to see what had been released into the hospital.

Before any of them got close, a drone took out the entire hospital.

Everyone stared in utter shock. They knew instantly that it wasn't anything in the hospital that exploded; it was a missile hitting the building. And they quickly concluded someone intentionally evacuated them to avoid being hit. But why someone did this was the big mystery.

They would eventually find out the hospital doubled as a storage facility for ISIS weaponry, and they were thankful someone warned them to get out.

And in the distance, a woman wearing a niqab that only showed her blue eyes smiled underneath.

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – Washington, D.C.  
May 4, 2016  
8:30 AM EDT**_

John Casey had to admit Miles was right about one thing. He was starting to regret not taking golf lessons.

He entered the offices of the Director of National Intelligence. His assistant, an Army lieutenant, snapped to attention and saluted him the second he walked into his office. It was a bit jarring the first few times the lieutenant did it and truthfully, Casey was getting tired of having to return the salute. That was his reward for spending the past six years working more like a secret agent as opposed to an actual military officer. Ironic, given he played an ex-Green Beret on TV.

He had been in D.C. all of six days, and he was already bored.

Beckman brought him to her office on a temporary basis. Casey was supposed to teach advanced-level espionage techniques to the newest students going through Langley. However, that would require students who were ready for his level of expertise, and they would need two more months before that occurred. Until then, his days would be spent analyzing reports coming in from the field and consulting with Beckman and her advisory team on matters of state. Beckman needed someone who had gotten their hands dirty in the field on her team. Casey could certainly qualify _magna cum laude_ in that department.

As usual, Casey's intelligence was grossly underestimated. Or the bureaucrats on Beckman's team really needed to get their heads out of their collective asses.

He was able to put into layman's terms the political climate of the world right then and the need for more internal focus, especially given what happened in San Bernardino five months ago. He noticed a lack of proper communication between Homeland, the FBI, and the NSA. He provided suggestions on streamlining those channels so local law enforcement received data more efficiently. Closer online monitoring was also suggested. Beckman approved these quickly and implementation would begin within a few weeks. It would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous how little her current advisors knew about the state of defense and espionage in the country and the world.

And that was as exciting as his life was at the moment. State the obvious, lather, rinse, repeat.

So far, Beckman had made no mention of this alleged new group Miles boasted about. He wasn't sure if he'd return to the field to deal with them; there was no sense letting him sit around waiting for his students to be ready for him. But he wasn't aware of any plans on how to deal with this new threat.

As he sat in his office going over the hourly flash traffic memos only two dozen people in all of the government were allowed to see, he had to chuckle quietly. He was starting to miss the action. He thought he could live without the show, live without being in the field. But he was quickly discovering it was much harder than he anticipated. He was missing the chance to serve, the chance to take down the enemy, the chance to protect his country.

And he especially missed his partners and friends. Even that lanky nerd.

Carina spent years teasing him relentlessly about that night in Prague. But really, he had nobody but himself to blame. His weakness for hot, trouble-making women was so obvious. Thankfully, she was as ruthless in the field as he was and never backed down. And like him, her intelligence was always underestimated to the peril of those who did. Slade was borderline insufferable with his wisecracking and complete lack of arrogance, to say nothing about those goddamn self-effacing one-liners of his. But as was proven when the two of them retook that al Qaeda-controlled village…not to mention the number of times Slade improvised the team's way out of danger…he was the best person to have on your six. And Sarah, despite the emotional upheavals she put the team through with Bryce and then with Chuck, was the best leader Casey had ever known. She knew how to get the best out of everybody, knew when to let them do their jobs, and knew when she had to step up to the plate. And she was a good friend to boot. It was little wonder why Chuck would fall for her.

And it was even less wonder why Sarah would fall for him.

Even Casey had to concede Chuck was unlike any asset they ever had to guard. It was never about him: he didn't care he was the most important intelligence asset in the government and had to be protected as such. He wanted to know the people watching him, to help them, to make their lives better. He didn't even give a second thought to saving his sister when Riordan Payne poisoned the three of them; her life was more important than his. Chuck didn't even want to take the antidote when he realized Sarah and he would die as well. It was then Casey realized this was no ordinary asset. And Chuck continued to prove himself, getting the customers and employees out of the Buy More on Black Friday, saving Sarah from Sasha Banacheck, stopping Fulcrum when he discovered his ex-girlfriend worked for them, and even helping him reunite with Ilsa.

Casey figured the two were off together somewhere, finally happy. And likely getting horizontal, which grossed him out to no end.

He quickly went back to the memos before he'd be forced to get some brain bleach. He scrolled to the report that was quickly becoming his favorite: the story of someone making their way through the Middle East fighting ISIS…and quite successfully. Whoever this person was, they were brilliant in matters of reconnaissance and sabotage of locations of armament. They even arranged a few instances where they were managed to have the church, school, or hospital evacuated where ISIS was hiding its weapons so British missiles and American drones could be used to destroy them. This person's efforts were increasing the efficiency of the West's military response and lowering the odds of civilians being hurt.

Whoever this person was, Casey wanted to buy them a drink and give them a cigar.

 _ **Soho, London – United Kingdom  
May 6, 2016  
7:00 AM BST**_

Carina slipped out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She still had her eyes only half-open, as she discovered the hard way having your own private jet didn't eliminate the jet lag. Neither did taking on armed thugs or screwing someone silly.

She opened the door still half-asleep when she felt a presence at the sink. She smiled and wrapped her arms around them, one hand drifting low.

"Good morning," she purred.

"Uh, good morning?" a voice most decidedly not Cole's answered.

Carina's eyes shot open and found herself face-to-face with a very handsome Middle Eastern man with a swimmer's body trimming his beard.

"Sorry!" she blurted out. "I thought you were Cole." She then took a moment. "Wait, why are you here?"

"Cole and I share the flat," the man replied. "It makes sense because neither of us are here that much and you know how expensive flat rates are in London."

Carina was a bit flustered. Not just from the shock but by how hot this guy looked wearing only a pair of purple briefs. "I'm…sorry about…that," she said nervously, pointing at his groin. "I…thought you were Cole. But hey, if it's any consolation, your girlfriend is one lucky gal."

"More like my boyfriend is one lucky guy."

"Aww, don't do that," Carina pouted. "I had such a good threesome fantasy brewing in my mind right now."

"Sorry to disappoint you," the man replied with a smile.

"Jesus, mate. Why didn't you tell me you were back in town?" Cole said behind Carina with a good-natured grin.

"My fault. I got in late last night and you two were…busy, so I didn't want to disturb you."

Cole turned to Carina. "Carina, this is Amir Nejem, my flat-mate and one of MI-6's best spies in the Middle East."

"Um…a pleasure?" Amir replied cautiously, shaking Carina's hand. "Cole told me he was seeing a hot Hollywood actress, but I didn't expect it to be you. Cole, why are you telling her…"

"You won't believe this. She works as an agent for the Americans. So do her co-stars. Jimmy Slade, John Casey, Sarah Walker, the whole lot. Can you believe that?"

Amir stood in wide-eyed surprise. "OK, I admit I did not see that coming. I know Cole was in New York not long ago, but he didn't give me any specifics. But all of you are spies? That is amazing."

"I'll bet the show doesn't play too well in a lot of parts of the Middle East," Carina replied.

Amir shrugged. "It's entertainment. Most people see the characters doing good. Heroes are heroes wherever you find them."

"Taking a break from work?" Cole asked him.

"A quick one. Just paying Trevor a visit then I have to go right back. There is a lot of chatter about someone sabotaging ISIS strongholds and making it easy for the Brits and the Americans to take them out with minimal civilian collateral damage. Nobody can catch her."

"A woman?" Carina asked with piqued interest.

Amir nodded. "She's getting quite famous, but with the way these terrorist organizations are organized, information goes predominantly one way: from the top down. The leadership has had trouble communicating with the individual cells. They call this woman _Alrriah Alllazurdia_."

"And translated means?" Cole asked.

"The Azure Wind."

Carina nodded at that. "She's good at disappearing when the job's done. And I'm guessing Azure refers to someone with blue eyes. If they can't identify her, she must be wearing a niqab that covers everything but her eyes. Otherwise why would they say azure if she wore a full burka?"

"All of that is correct," Amir agreed. "Which means finding her is as important to us as it is to the enemy. We need to know how she operates, and I think we would agree keeping her alive would be a good thing."

"Does HQ have any other data on her?" Cole asked.

Amir nodded. "Perhaps you can bring Miss Miller with you. She might see something we don't, or she can call in her friends to help."

Carina nodded. "I can give John Casey a call in D.C. But I think Sarah is off somewhere with Chuck. And I'm not really sure where Jimmy is right now."

"Still, no harm in you seeing what we have so far," Cole said. "Let's get ready."

Carina turned to Amir. "Would you mind if we…"

Amir shook his head and smiled. "Not the first time." He went to his bedroom while Carina pulled Cole into the bathroom.

 _ **Grand Hôtel – Stockholm, Sweden  
May 7, 2016  
9:30 PM CEST**_

Much to the relief of their room steward, Chuck and Sarah had finally managed to exit their suite and join the rest of the hotel guests in the majestic restaurant for dinner and dancing. The large room had tables set up in a half-circle around a dance floor with a band at the open end and an ornate chandelier hanging directly over the center of the dance floor.

Chuck sat next to Sarah at a table for two dressed in a navy blue suit with a striped tie they found at a shop in London, where they had spent a few hours before their flight to Stockholm. He hoped Sarah couldn't see his goofy smile any time he looked at her wearing that shimmering silver dress and her hair up with pins, as if she was daring him to plant kisses all along her neck. Luckily, the credit cards Carina and Jimmy set up for them worked to perfection. The biggest problem they had in London was avoiding all of the cameras the city had, but Sarah had practiced this as part of her spy training, so she was fairly certain nobody from the government had spotted them.

"Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" Chuck asked her as they sampled their desserts.

"Only a few dozen times," Sarah retorted with a grin.

"What? Can't I tell the woman I love how beautiful she is?"

"Of course. I just hear that all the time from the fans and the tabloids. The difference is for some reason they think looks are all I have."

"Well, I know from personal experience that's not true. Not even close. And don't even think of selling yourself short in that department ever again."

"I'm a lot smarter than the tabloids give me credit for, sure," Sarah replied with a shrug. "But I had some pretty smart people working on my team for all those years. I mean, John Casey worked for over two decades in the military, and I was constantly amazed by his knowledge. Jimmy has a 160 IQ. That's quite a few points into genius territory. And Carina…even I have to admit there are not many who are better at thinking on their feet than her."

The two watched as many couples began to move to the dance floor. "Do you miss them?" Chuck asked quietly.

Sarah stared out at the floor for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Yes, I do. I don't regret doing this, but they were such a big part of my life."

"We'll see them again, Sarah," Chuck assured her. "What they did for me…what they did for you…you don't forget people like that. We should all be so lucky to…"

He didn't finish as he glanced across the restaurant and spotted a man with shoulder-length hair and a mustache. He flashed, seeing pictures of the Russian countryside, weapons, and an image of this man slitting someone's throat.

"Uh, Sarah?"

"What is it?" she asked nervously, knowing he had just flashed.

"That guy over there is Kolya Panarin," Chuck replied in hushed tones. "Freelance hitman. He's worked with a number of crime syndicates and even did some wetwork for the Syrian government a few years back."

Sarah studied him. "And he must have an assignment tonight," she said. "I've seen assassins wear outfits like that before. They're useful in concealing different types of weapons. But who is his target?"

Sarah continued to look at Panarin as Chuck scanned the crowd to see if there was anyone of importance in the room. He saw a fortysomething woman dancing with whom he assumed to be her husband. He had another flash.

"It might be her," Chuck said, pointing in the direction of the woman. "That's Olga Sokolov. She's negotiating some trade deals between former Soviet Bloc nations and the European Union."

"And if she's successful, there are a lot of mob-controlled Russian businesses that would not like it," Sarah concluded.

Panarin got up and took the hand of his date, leading her to the dance floor. Sarah began to get up as well.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" Chuck asked with considerable worry. "This was the very thing we're trying to get away from."

"We can't let an innocent woman be killed," she replied.

Chuck exhaled slowly. She had a point. He got up. "How will he do it?"

"In a situation like this, I'd dance with my partner until I got close then inject her with something poisonous. Make it small and innocuous so the crowd only thinks I bumped into her by accident."

Chuck scanned the crowd as Sarah noticed Panarin play with one of the rings on his fingers. Chuck flashed, and the Intersect's entire database on ballroom dancing came up.

He grabbed Sarah. "Get ready to intercept him."

Chuck began to dance with Sarah, pirouetting around the floor with her in a waltz that would make Arthur Murray applaud. Sarah stared in surprise at Chuck. The Intersect may have taught him how to dance, but being on the floor with him was such an amazing delight.

Pity they had someone's life to save.

Panarin and his date made their way closer to Sokolov. Chuck and Sarah moved on the floor from the other direction, their skills in the waltz impressing the crowd.

"Spin me out, Chuck," Sarah whispered.

Chuck spun her, hanging on to her one hand. Sarah turned and crashed into Panarin's right side. She grabbed his wrist to prevent herself from falling and pressed it hard into his thigh. The hidden needle on the underside of his finger went into his thigh.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Sarah exclaimed. "I'm such a klutz."

Chuck immediately pulled her back to him and Sokolov and her husband left the dance floor. Chuck and Sarah walked in the other direction, keeping an eye on them and on Panarin. He took a few steps and then grabbed his left arm. He staggered back to his table and collapsed, the poison making it look like he just had a heart attack. The _maître d'_ ran to retrieve an automated external defibrillator, but it was no use. The crowd looked on in shock, completely unaware Panarin's date had disappeared.

Chuck and Sarah exited the restaurant and went down the hallway to the elevator. They knew it was in their best interests to pack quickly and leave. They took the elevator to their floor.

The doors opened to reveal Panarin's date and a couple of men with guns.

"I thought you looked familiar, Miss Walker," the woman said. "I'd like to think it was coincidence my partner was the victim of an unfortunate accident, but I don't."

She pulled out her own gun. "Let's find out who you two really are," she threatened, aiming the gun between Sarah's eyes.

Chuck flashed as instructions on kung-fu, ju-jitsu, boxing, and street combat flooded his mind. He quickly chopped at the woman's hand, forcing her to drop her gun. He then sent a spinning kick at one of the guards as Sarah attacked the other guard, twisting his wrist and spinning around, landing an elbow to his face. She slammed his wrist on her knee, forcing him to drop her gun. She kicked backwards to knock the woman down as Chuck leaped and landed a vertical kick on the first guard, knocking him out. The second guard tried to come at them but Sarah jumped, and Chuck grabbed her shoulders, swinging her around to land a heel to the side of the head of the man, knocking him out. She landed and threw a savage right cross at the woman, knocking her out.

They looked at the three people on the ground. "OK, I promise. This is the last time we do this," Sarah said.

"Agreed," Chuck replied.

They both stood there for a moment. "Retirement is going to be much harder than I thought, isn't it," Sarah said with a tinge of frustration.

Chuck nodded. "We'll work on it," he promised.

 _ **Edgewater Beach – Chicago, IL  
May 12, 2016  
2:00 AM CDT**_

'Time heals all wounds' was a well-known aphorism. But after two weeks, that wasn't true. The pain got worse every single day. And this night felt like it was already next month.

Jimmy sat on the rocks looking out at Lake Michigan, taking another swig from the bottle of Jack Daniels he brought with him. Nobody ever came to this part of the shore; he couldn't even have been seen by anyone living in the buildings behind him on Sheridan Road. And it wasn't likely the police would hassle him. That's why he chose this location. He didn't want anyone to know where he was.

It was over. Everything he had worked so hard for over the last three years was gone. Just like that. He finally had something in his life to be proud of. He was part of a team; he finally had close friends. And with one decision, Beckman took it all away.

Since leaving Los Angeles, he moved in a complete haze, as if he had just lost a loved one. That wasn't that far from the truth; Sarah, Carina, and Casey were the only people who ever gave a rat's ass about him. Sarah was right: he was trying to spy his way into an early grave. Until he joined her team, he did have a death wish. But once they put him on the show and Sarah got him to trust himself and the team, things had changed for the better. He had done a complete 180, even if he still made too many disparaging remarks about himself. The fans really liked him, always came out in droves when he made public appearances, and the work he did as an agent was thousands of times as effective as when he was a lone spy.

But after Beckman broke up the team and cancelled the show two weeks ago, it felt like he just plummeted off of a cliff.

Without a new assignment, he didn't know where to go. He went back to his hometown and tried to put on his best poker face regarding the show, since it would still be ten weeks before the show was officially cancelled. But his heart just wasn't in it. He couldn't handle smiling at these people and signing autographs knowing the big bombshell that would be dropped on them in mid-July. There wasn't even any logic for cancelling the show from the fans' standpoint. The show was as popular as ever. Beckman thought she could say Sarah was having 'personal issues' and that caused the show to end? It was ludicrous. He thought things couldn't get any worse.

And then they did.

They aired the season finale a few days ago, and to say the fans were shocked was putting it mildly. The water cooler question going around the country was if Lance McCall really was killed in that elevator shaft. The demand for interviews went through the roof. Every local Chicago TV station wanted to interview them on their morning programs. The Cubs wanted him to sing the 7th-inning stretch, and NASCAR even asked him to give the command to race at the event in Charlotte on Memorial Day Weekend. Eventually, he stopped answering his phone, too depressed to even think of doing anything but sitting on those rocks and staring out at the lake. He then went to take another drink from the bottle.

It was empty.

He looked at the bottle in absolute horror. He finished the entire bottle and didn't even notice it. He whipped the bottle away, sending it crashing on the rocks. He collapsed onto the rocks and began to cry. After all of his trials in life, after all of the abuse, the heartbreak, it had finally happened. The one thing he struggled his entire life to avoid.

He had turned into his father.

He remembered in his youth with horrid clarity how his father was once he turned to the bottle. The man stopped caring, stopped parenting, stopped the responsibilities that came with raising a family. He didn't even care he caused the death of his wife and daughter; it didn't even register with him. And the very path Jimmy worked hard not to go down was staring him in the face.

He slowly sat up. He refused to make the same mistake his father did. He wouldn't take the chance of hurting another innocent like his father did.

He reached behind him and pulled out his gun. He checked the magazine to make sure it was loaded and reinserted it. He pulled back on the slide and released the safety. He placed the gun under his chin.

Right next to him, his smartphone began to beep. His finger started to squeeze the trigger. The smartphone continued to beep. Jimmy's hand began to shake.

He pulled the gun away from his chin and looked at his smartphone. On his smartphone was a code and coordinates. The code was 7700. It was a code every spy knew: the code of a fellow agent in severe distress, sent when the DNI would not acknowledge their presence. Sending out the code meant they needed emergency assistance.

Jimmy's hand continued to shake. He put the gun back under his chin. The smartphone continued to beep.

"FUCK!" he screamed. He threw it into the lake.

 _ **Unknown Location  
May 11, 2016  
12:00 AM**_

The group of five sat around a semi-circular table in the darkness; the light from the computer screens in front of them the only things illuminating the room.

"With Fulcrum gone, we need a new strategy," the man on the far left said.

"Our plans can still go through," the man just to the right of center replied. "Fulcrum's work may not have been a complete waste."

"What do you mean?" said the woman sitting in the center.

"There is little doubt now this Charles Bartowski has intimate knowledge of the Intersect. Fulcrum ascertained that when they held his father. I believe Fulcrum's theory about Bartowski handing an Intersect upload is correct."

"That is some wild speculation," the man at the far right said.

"But what if it was Bartowski who defeated our agents in that CIA facility? What if it wasn't Walker's team? Even if I'm wrong, he is still worth capturing."

"We must find him," the woman in the center said.

"Let us try a new approach," the woman just left of center said. "Instead of wasting our time finding him, make him come to us."

"How?"

"He has an entire family and many friends still in Los Angeles. Let us apply the pressure on them and force him out of whatever hiding place he has found."

The woman in the center nodded. "Agreed."


	27. A Need To Be Needed

_Hello. I have to admit struggling with this particular chapter. I thought it would be much easier to write because every piece was planned out. But then I was on a bit of a weird schedule this past week and change actually doing work...and I don't just mean writing this story. It was temporary work but work nonetheless. I just have to keep plugging away._

 _The team is still apart at this point, but we're going to start organizing the plotlines that will inevitably get them back together. I'm not sure how well this worked, so please let me know what you liked and what you didn't like._

 _As a quick aside, I should tell you the part of this story in Paris was written before the horrible events in Nice. I apologize if I made anybody upset by that, and certainly everyone here in the States will be there with the people of France._

 _The parts that come from the show (not as many this time) are still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. Please leave reviews._

 _Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **Fleury-Mérogis Prison - Fleury-Mérogis, France  
May 7, 2016  
6:00 PM CEST**_

Two guards walked down the hallway towards one of the cells, one of whom carried a tray of food. The person they were visiting was in solitary confinement for his own protection. Many of the prisoners knew of this man. Being a foreigner in a French prison was a dangerous thing in and of itself. The fact this man had a hand in a subway bombing fourteen years ago made it worse. And two of the gangs in the prison had ties to criminal organizations in Russia who would love to see this man die a horrible death.

The first guard unlocked the cell and pulled it open. The man with the tray entered. " _Voici votre diner_ (Here's your dinner)," he said disdainfully, dropping the tray on the table in the cell.

The guard turned to exit…and ran right into the needle the first guard plunged into him. He began to convulse and fell to the ground.

" _Obtenez dans son uniforme_ (Get in his uniform)," the first guard ordered the prisoner. The guard went down the hallway and turned off the feed for the security cameras.

" _Vite! Nous avons seulement deux minutes!_ (Quickly! We only have two minutes!)," the guard ordered the prisoner as he returned to the cell.

The prisoner finished putting on the uniform of the dead guard, and both exited the cell, the first guard locking it. They walked slowly, careful not to draw attention as the cameras were overridden and switched back on.

" _Cellule Bloc rapport C2_ (Cellblock C2, report)," the guard was ordered over his radio.

" _Bloc C2, tout va bien._ (Block C2, all is well.)" was the reply.

The two men quickly walked into the loading area where a laundry truck waited for them. Both of them got inside and hid under the hampers of dirty uniforms and towels using a false floor in the truck bed. The truck departed the loading dock and signed out with the guard. The truck drove off and went ten miles, pulling into a garage not far from the border of Paris.

The two men in the front of the truck got out and opened the back. The guard and the prisoner extricated themselves from under the uniforms and towels and exited.

"OK, you are out," the driver of the truck said. "Now give us what you claimed you had."

"Let's see the money first," the prisoner replied.

The man took out his smartphone and showed the prisoner the account where the money currently sat. "It's there. Once this is over, you'll get every dime of it."

"Just remember our deal. You may capture her, but I get to kill her myself."

"Her? How are you so sure it's a woman?"

"I know exactly who you're looking for," Victor Federov said. "And I know how she thinks."

 _ **MI-6 Headquarters – London, UK  
May 6, 2016  
9:30 AM BST**_

Carina, Cole, and Amir walked into the large computer center in the basement of MI-6.

"Carina, this is Grace Hawkinson," Cole said, pointing to a woman sitting at a desk surrounded by a series of large monitors that would make the most hard-core gamer all tingly. "Three guesses as to what we call her and what she does."

"Good to meet you," Carina said. "Do you actually like to be called Hawk?"

Hawk shook her head. "Doesn't help my dating life much. And partying with these two helps it even less."

"How has the search been for our mystery woman?" Amir asked.

"So far, not a lot of success. But we know she's out there somewhere. She's committed at least six acts of sabotage against ISIS, but even that number might be a little low. She really is like the wind: there's no timetable, no pattern to her movements. Our only guess is that she moves in and out of villages near her targets and has a way to hack into encrypted information coming from British, French, and American militaries. Whoever this woman is, she's good. Damn good."

"A fellow agent, perhaps?" Carina asked.

"That was our first thought, but none of the agencies we've been in contact with say she's with them. Not British Intelligence, not the CIA, not the DGSE, FSB, not even the Mossad."

"That doesn't mean she isn't working for one of them," Cole replied. "She could be doing the dirty work and they'll deny her if she's killed or captured."

"And that's the very thing we need to prevent," Amir said.

Carina looked at the screens showing the locations where the Azure Wind had committed acts of sabotage, either by destroying ISIS munitions herself or preventing civilian casualties when British and American missile strikes took out those strongholds. Amir and Hawk were right; there was no pattern to follow.

Suddenly she smiled. "How about we give her a target?"

"What do you mean?" Cole asked.

"We talk with British military forces and have them circulate intel that they intend a strike against a large enough target where they're convinced weapons are. Azure Wind won't be able to resist making it work. And then we sweep in and pick her up."

"But if ISIS hasn't been successful in catching her, should we just leave well enough alone and consider ourselves lucky she's on our side?" Hawk asked.

"That's the problem, Grace," Amir said. Hawk always liked that Amir called her by her actual name. Why did the jerk have to have a boyfriend? "Luck always runs out."

"And in this business, when your luck is gone, so is your life," Carina added solemnly.

 _ **Grand Hôtel – Stockholm, Sweden  
May 8, 2016  
10:00 AM CEST**_

Chuck and Sarah packed their remaining items and got ready to leave. Chuck went to the car rental desk at the airport to switch vehicles. Sarah took the chance he wouldn't be recognized as easily, particularly wearing a Swedish soccer shirt and hat. Sarah may have loved Chuck telling her over and over how beautiful she was, but standing out in a crowd was not exactly helpful in their current situation.

"Did you get a good car for us, sweetie?" Sarah called out from the bathroom.

"Just as you told me," Chuck replied. "The most nondescript, vanilla car they had on their lot. And I parked it by the southwest stairwell behind the hotel."

"Great." Sarah walked into the living room and grabbed the TV remote. "One of the best inventions for spies: checking out on the television."

"But you're supposed to take the room key with you, right? Our personal information is stored on there."

"Actually, I'll do us one better."

Sarah pulled a small device from her suitcase and grabbed the two keycards for the room. She held the device over the toilet and fed each keycard through it. The device shredded each card into hundreds of pieces that landed in the toilet. She then flushed it.

"OK, that's almost as secure as my suggestion," Chuck said with a grin. "Just keep our credit cards away from it."

Sarah smiled at that and put the shredder back in her suitcase. "Ready to go?"

Chuck walked over to her and took her face in his hands, giving her a gentle kiss. "Ready."

He grabbed the two large bags as Sarah carried her laptop and the two backpacks they also had. They exited and took the elevator to the ground floor. Instead of turning towards the lobby, they went down the hallway in the opposite direction to the southwest stairwell. They opened the door to the outside.

One hundred fans started screaming at seeing them there. Chuck and Sarah froze in shock.

"What the hell?!" Chuck was astounded.

"Come on!" Sarah yelled, pulling him towards their car. They quickly got in and took off, the fans sprinting after them and calling their names.

"How the hell did they know we were here?" Chuck asked in complete bewilderment.

Sarah pulled over near a newsstand. "That's why," she said.

She pointed at a copy of the newspaper. Splashed across the front was the headline _Charah Räddar Dagen_ (Charah Saves the Day), complete with a picture of them dancing at the hotel.

"I don't believe it!" Chuck said in exasperation. "How did anybody figure out we did that?"

" _CHUCK OCH SARAH!_ "

Chuck and Sarah bolted up in the car. They looked back to find a throng of screaming fans heading their way. Sarah quickly put the car in gear and high-tailed it out of the city.

"Staying out of the spotlight will be almost impossible," Sarah said, shaking her head. "I know we're famous, but I didn't know we were THAT famous."

"Well, look on the bright side," Chuck said.

"What's that?"

"We're officially The Beatles."

Sarah glanced over to see the big grin on Chuck's face and couldn't help breaking up in hysterics.

 _ **Unknown Location  
May 13, 2016  
9:30 PM**_

A CIA agent sat in a darkened room, her wrists and ankles shackled. She put out the code 7700 just in the nick of time; she was captured two minutes later. But she was not optimistic. Beyond the mere fact putting out that code only resulted in a rescue 10% of the time on a good day, she was one of the agency's most hated agents. A number of her colleagues…not that any of them would ever consider her to be one…lost their jobs or were sent to desk duty based on her recommendations.

Alex Forrest shook her head. She didn't expect this to happen on her first mission since returning to the field. After what happened with Walker's team, she finally realized her past had too often clouded her judgement in her assessment of other agents and knew she had to return to actual field work. She abhorred agents showing any sort of closeness to assets, and Walker broke pretty much every rule in the book regarding Chuck Bartowski. But thankfully they stuck to their guns, and it saved her life. The little clue Jimmy Slade dropped to get Vincent away from her so he could take him out would only have worked with a team that trusted each other implicitly. John Casey was right: Sarah Walker was a good leader.

That very trust might have kept her out of the very situation she was in now.

The door opened and someone entered. Rigoberto Salazar was a fence for Basque separatists who provided them with weapons and personnel, but providing information was his specialty. Forrest had put herself in position to sell a list of covert agents working in countries in the EU in order to steal any data she could on Salazar or his clients, but Salazar thought it would be less expensive to just kidnap her.

"Good news," Salazar said. "We found the disc in your hotel room. We're going through the encryption now. If everything pans out, I promise we'll kill you fast. If the data isn't there, your death will take a bit more time. And you might be the victim of a few 'violations' before you die."

"I'll save you the trouble," Forrest spat at him. "There's nothing on that disc. And don't think you'll get a chance to lay a finger on me."

"Then I guess we'll have to settle for everything you do know," Salazar retorted with a sleazy grin, ignoring Forrest's threat. "We'll need the tools for this." Salazar turned and walked towards a closet behind him. He opened the door.

A figure swung down from above the door frame, planting their feet right into Salazar's chest, sending him flying across the room, and knocking him out completely. Forrest stared in wide-eyed shock at the person in front of her.

"You have no idea how glad I am you don't hold a grudge," she said in amazement.

"I really wish I was rescuing someone else right now," Jimmy said, not exactly in the greatest of moods. "I was doing something important when your call came in."

He went behind Forrest and cut off her wrist and ankle cuffs. "Let's get out of here," she said.

"Wait, why were you here anyway?" Jimmy asked.

"I was supposed to get whatever intel I could on Salazar and his clients by selling them a disc of agents, but they decided capturing me was cheaper."

"Do you know where the stuff is?"

"Two rooms down the hall if I was right about the layout of this place."

Jimmy went back to the closet he came out of and leaped up to pull down a duffel bag. He took out a Glock 17 and handed it to Forrest. He then pulled out two for himself and slung the bag over his shoulder.

"Let's finish the job, then," he said.

The two went down the hallway to the room where Forrest thought the information was. Sure enough, they entered to find a laptop computer and a series of documents on a table. Forrest grabbed a backpack underneath the desk and shoved the laptop and documents into it.

They then turned to see a half-dozen of Salazar's men in front of them.

"Aren't you on that TV show?" one of them asked Jimmy in total surprise. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Jimmy straightened to his full height. "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass."

"And he's all out of bubble gum," Forrest added.

Jimmy's eyes widened. "You knew that one?" he whispered to her.

"Rowdy Roddy Piper, _They Live_ ," Forrest whispered back. "I loved that movie."

Jimmy shook his head. "Serious nerd cred," he said to himself.

One of Salazar's men tried to draw their gun and Jimmy dove, opening fire at them. They ducked to the ground as Forrest got behind the desk and also began shooting. Two of Salazar's men took hits and fell but the other four started to get the upper hand with their weapons as Jimmy and Forrest started running out of ammunition.

Jimmy pulled out a flash grenade from his bag. "Fire in the hole!" he yelled at Forrest.

Forrest ducked down completely and covered her eyes as Jimmy threw the flash grenade at the remaining men. It went off, blinding two of the men, but the other two managed to avoid also being blinded. Jimmy charged at the group, using his Glocks to pistol-whip the two blinded thugs. One of the two remaining ones sent a hard kick across Jimmy's face, knocking him back. He turned back towards the desk…just in time to receive a kick across his face from Forrest, who was standing directly behind him. The last man tried to aim his gun at Forrest, but she spun to knock it out of his hands, and Jimmy finished him off with a roundhouse.

Jimmy and Forrest grabbed their weapons and Salazar's information and dashed out of the room. They ran right into an extremely pissed-off Salazar, who was now brandishing a shotgun.

"Move it," he growled. A half-dozen more of Salazar's men were behind them with their weapons trained on the pair. One of them took their weapons and the two bags. Salazar led them back to the room where Forrest had been tied up earlier.

"OK, we're going to try this again," Salazar said in barely-contained fury, grabbing the table of tools he attempted to get earlier. "You will tell us every last thing you know. Especially you, Mr. Slade. Or is it Agent Slade? You not only play an agent on TV but are one in real life?"

"Who do you think I am, Sy Sperling?" Jimmy asked in disbelief.

"Enough with the one-liners," Salazar growled. He put down the shotgun and started rummaging through the tools to see which one to use to begin the torture.

"I'm really sorry about this," Forrest whispered to Jimmy. "About everything."

"Not a problem," Jimmy whispered back. "We just have to do the Time Warp."

"The Time Warp? What does Prince have to do with this?"

"That's Morris Day and The Time. The Time Warp? Brad and Janet?"

Forrest figured it out. "Oh, I remember now. It's just a jump to the left…"

Forrest's eyes widened and she quickly jumped to her left. Jimmy pressed a button on his watch as he dove. The ceiling above them exploded, and several guns fell to the floor in front of them. Jimmy grabbed two pistols, rolled onto his back, and emptied both clips at Salazar's men, taking all of them out. Forrest grabbed the other gun and pointed it directly at Salazar.

"Now what were you saying about giving me a slow death?" Forrest growled at Salazar.

He gave an evil grin and reached for the rifle. Forrest pulled the trigger, nailing him right between the eyes.

Jimmy watched as Forrest tucked the gun behind her back. "I just have to say it. Being a total bitch really looks good on you."

Forrest nodded. "I need to learn how to bring it out at the right times."

"I'd say just now would qualify."

"True," Forrest said with a smile as she reached out with her hand to pull Jimmy to his feet. "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve defying the odds of a fellow agent rescuing me, but I'm really glad it was you."

Jimmy shrugged as they walked down the hall to retrieve Forrest's mobile phone and belongings. "I don't know. I just get this sense that I…" he let the sentence trail off.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing. It's not important," Jimmy replied in a highly-subdued voice.

"No, something's bothering you…"

Forrest's smartphone began to beep. She took a look at the message on it. Her face then went completely pale. She staggered a bit and held onto the table to stop herself from falling.

"I…I need…can I have your car keys?" she asked in an almost ghostlike tone.

Jimmy handed them to her. "It's a blue sedan parked a hundred yards south of the building. Is everything OK?"

"I…I need to go." She handed the laptop to Jimmy. "Bring this back to the CIA. I'll find you soon."

She ran out of the room, leaving Jimmy completely stunned. He thought he saw a few tears in her eyes as she ran off.

 _ **MI-6 Headquarters – London, UK  
May 13, 2016  
2:30 PM BST**_

It took almost a week to set up the plans with the British Navy. They got the Prime Minister and the head of MI-6 to approve the plan to smoke out the Azure Wind. Carina's idea was simplicity itself. The British Navy would leak information of a munitions depot in Astara, just inside the Iranian border. However, leveling the depot could lead to heavy civilian loss if the missile strike from the Caspian Sea was off-target. MI-6 would set agents in the field along the road from Lankaran to the border. They figured the Azure Wind would either take out the munitions dump herself or paint the target so the missiles would have almost zero chance of missing. They would then take the Azure Wind into their custody.

"When are we scheduling this 'missile strike'?" Carina asked.

"Seven days," Amir replied. "We want to make sure everybody has plenty of time to get into position. We give the Azure Wind enough time, and she can be more cautious with her setup."

"Exactly," Cole concurred. "We don't want her panicking. She becomes too much of a wild card and we could get her and our agents killed."

"Have we kept the D.C. in the loop on this?" Carina asked.

"That'll be your job. Actually, this would be a good time to get your friends involved. We could certainly use some of the CIA's best agents for this."

Carina nodded. "I can forward what we have and what we plan to John Casey. But Sarah's off somewhere with Chuck Bartowski. It'd take me time to track them down."

"What about Jimmy Slade?"

"I don't know." Carina's look turned to worry. "I've tried calling him three times in the last three days, but I've gotten nothing. That's very unusual. I really hope nothing has happened to him."

That got Cole's attention. "We should let Casey know. Something is definitely not right. Maybe cancelling the show hit him harder than anyone thought."

"Yeah," Carina said in a much softer voice. She hadn't thought of it before now, but she suddenly remembered what Jimmy said to her before they went to rescue Cole. He said he couldn't let her risk her life because without the team, he had nothing. And now there was no team.

"Grace, gather everything you have and link up to our servers," Carina said. "I'll tell Casey to keep an eye out for your data and get him to put out a search for Jimmy."

 _ **Rue Vieille du Temple – Paris, France  
May 10, 2016  
8:30 PM CEST**_

Chuck and Sarah tried to keep a low profile as they walked down the street. Both of them wore baseball caps and nondescript clothing and were careful to not look up and be caught on any surveillance cameras.

It took almost an entire day to get from Stockholm to Paris, but driving was their only option. Flying may have been faster, but they didn't have enough money to charter their own plane and they would spend too much time with people that might recognize them with no means of escape if they flew commercially. Of course, driving to one of the most highly-populated cities in Europe…a city where the show also happened to be incredibly popular…would seem like an idiotic idea. However, Sarah had a few contacts in this town from her pre- _Spy Girl_ days, and she would need their help if they were to stay one step ahead of everybody.

"Want to get some coffee?" Chuck asked her, gesturing to a café a few feet in front of them.

"Mmm, that sounds good," Sarah replied.

They entered the café hand-in-hand and placed their orders. As they waited, Chuck turned to Sarah and took her in his arms.

"So, how do you feel tonight?" he asked, to which she raised an eyebrow. "I mean, apart from this 'instantly recognizable' problem we seem to be having," he added with a grin.

"Still loving every minute of it," she replied, caressing his cheek. "I'm so glad we're together." She pulled him to her and gave him a kiss.

"Me, too. And we'll figure this out somehow. We're two very smart people. One way or another, we can make this work."

"No more heroics, though. Right?" she said, placing a cautionary finger in Chuck's face, although her grin belied the threat.

"No more heroics."

They grabbed their coffees and paid the barista. They began to walk out of the café when Chuck spotted two men sitting at a table with pastries in front of them but otherwise not talking. He started to flash, seeing images of skyscrapers, explosions, and kill orders written in Arabic.

"Chuck?" Sarah asked with considerable fear at seeing him flash.

"Uh, is there a way we can stop those two men over there from blowing something up without using heroics?"

"Who are they?"

"Part of a terror cell based out of Syria."

Chuck and Sarah walked past them slowly, pretending they weren't paying attention to them. Sarah used Chuck as a shield to hide her looking at the men's clothing.

"Both of them are wearing vests," she whispered. "We need to get the police here. But how do we go back to the barista without raising suspicions?"

Chuck looked around and had an idea. He took a sip of his coffee and spit it out. He walked back to the barista looking extremely upset.

" _Vous mettez trop de sucre dans ce_ (You put too much sugar in this)!" he said to the barista.

" _Je suis désolé monsieur_ (I am sorry, sir)," the barista replied.

Chuck looked back at Sarah, who had taken out her knife and was hiding it underneath her sleeve.

" _Appelez la police dès maintenant_ (Call the police right now)," he whispered to the barista.

" _Porquoi_ (Why)?"

" _Vous êtes sur le point de savoir_ (You're about to find out)," Chuck replied.

He turned to see Sarah walk towards the two terrorists. She then executed a perfect pratfall, using the knife to cut the jacket of one of the men. He was wearing a vest of explosives underneath.

The man rose in anger, but Sarah jumped up and landed a spinning kick on him. The man's partner tried to attack, but Chuck flashed on his combat program and went after him, leapfrogging over a table to land a chop at the man's throat. The man took out a knife and tried to lunge at him, but he spun, grabbed the man's arm, and flipped him to the ground. The man Sarah took out stirred and grabbed a detonator attached to his vest, but Sarah dove for him, grabbing the detonator and elbowing him in the face to knock him out. Sarah started to get up.

"Don't let go of that!" Chuck said, having had a very quick flash on the device. "That's a dead man's switch. You release it, and it sets off the bomb."

"Can you defuse it?" Sarah asked.

Chuck ran behind the counter and grabbed a very sharp knife. He kneeled down and felt underneath for a wire hidden along the shoulder of the unconscious terrorist. He cut the wire using the knife.

"It's safe now," Chuck exhaled in relief. Sarah dropped the detonator on the man and took Chuck's hand to get up. They walked towards the door.

Two more men outside readied a pair of assault rifles.

" _CHACUN BAS_ (GET DOWN)!" Chuck screamed. He tackled Sarah to the ground as the other patrons and employees also hit the deck.

" _Tout le monde derrière le comptoir_ (Everybody behind the counter)!" Sarah yelled.

The employees and patrons crawled behind the counter as they took refuge underneath the windows. The two men shattered the windows with their assault rifles, and glass rained down on Chuck and Sarah.

"What now?" Chuck asked.

"We better pray the police get here fast," Sarah said in a rush.

Chuck crawled a couple of steps back to see the approximate location of the shooters. He then had a flash. Various physics equations and measurements went through his mind.

"Sarah, can you reach that chair?" Chuck asked, pointing to the chair behind her.

Sarah lay on the ground and reached for the wooden chair, tipping it over and pulling it to her. "What now?"

"Hold the back of it."

Sarah held onto the back of the chair, and Chuck brought his heel down onto the legs of the chair.

"AAAAGH!" he screamed. "OK, I've seen ALL FOUR OF YOU do that on the show!"

Sarah huffed in frustration and grabbed the back of the chair, smashing the legs against the window frame. The legs splintered, and the two pulled them off.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Take one of the legs and crawl over by the door. When I tell you, fling it outside as far away as you can from those two."

Sarah grabbed one of the legs and slid along the floor to be next to the door. Chuck grabbed two other legs.

"Now!" Chuck shouted.

Sarah whipped the chair leg out the door. The two men instantly turned in that direction and continued firing. Chuck stood up and whipped the chair legs he had at the iron planters hanging across the street. The chair legs knocked them off of their posts and fell on the heads of the two men, knocking them out completely.

Sarah looked out at the two unconscious terrorists and then looked at Chuck in total astonishment. "That was…that was amazing," she said, her mouth agape. "How did you…"

Chuck shrugged and pointed to his head again. "This Intersect thing? It's kind of cool."

"That's an understatement if I ever heard one," Sarah said in appreciation, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a hard kiss.

They suddenly heard sirens filling the air. "I think they're playing our song," Chuck said.

"Yeah, we better quit while we're…alive."

"Time to make like a tree and get out of here."

"Isn't it 'make like a tree and leave'?"

"OK, we need to have a movie night sometime," Chuck said in frustration as the two ran out of the café and out of sight.

 _ **Ivy Hill Cemetery – Philadelphia, PA  
May 16, 2016  
12:00 PM EDT**_

Jimmy walked through the rows and rows of gravestones, the surrounding trees gently rustling in a cool breeze. He stopped behind one of those trees, careful not to make a sound, as he saw the small burial taking place just ahead of him. He didn't want anyone to know he was there; he wanted to respect their privacy.

He watched Forrest stand almost motionless, clutching what looked like a policeman's hat. It made sense, as he discovered her father was a Philadelphia Police officer for over thirty years. He had to chuckle at that: it explained so much about her. Standing next to her was a couple with two small children. That was likely her brother and his family.

Forrest placed her father's policeman's hat on top of his casket, and her brother put his hand over it before stepping back and pulling his wife and children into a tight embrace. His wife gave Forrest a hug, as did the two little girls. They then walked to their car. Forrest stayed behind and continued to stare at the casket.

Jimmy slowly approached her and waited patiently. She then turned when she felt someone watching her.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered in complete surprise.

Jimmy looked at the ground. "The way you left the other day, I was worried it was something really bad. I did not want to be right. Although your father being a cop probably shouldn't shock me, given what I've seen of you."

He gave a tiny smile. "Are you OK?" he asked softly.

Jimmy could see Forrest's guard go up. "I'm fine." He wasn't buying it. "Look, people go through this all the time, right?"

"And you were 'fine' when your mother died of breast cancer ten years ago but the CIA couldn't get you back for her funeral?"

"How the hell did you know…"

"I was…I was worried," Jimmy replied. "I did some homework on you. Including why you joined the CIA. I mean, I thought I didn't have it easy back then, but you…you lost your fiancé on 9/11."

"It's in the past," Forrest replied sharply, but Jimmy could see her hardened demeanor beginning to crack. "You're in the wrong business if you can't handle…I mean, bad things happen all the time…"

Jimmy pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. She broke down in tears and held on to him as for the first time since joining the CIA, her emotions had completely overwhelmed her. Her life had been positively idyllic until the day her fiancé was killed in the Pentagon. She was two months away from graduating from Quantico on a fast track to being one of the FBI's best agents. And in that moment, that plane crash that severely damaged the E Ring of the Pentagon and killed her fiancé and twenty-nine others, her world was torn apart. She never recovered from that, and the CIA turned that borderline-suicidal woman into an emotionless killing machine who had no tolerance for agents that strayed one chapter from the manual.

"Goddammit," she wailed as she buried her face in Jimmy's shoulder, unable to stop crying. "I can't believe I'm doing this. And in front of you, no less. God, I hope nobody else finds out."

Jimmy hugged her more tightly. "If I couldn't keep a secret, I'd really suck at my job."

Forrest gave a gentle laugh snuggled closer. "You are really good at this. It's like…um…"

"Like hugging a big teddy bear?" Forrest nodded. "Yeah, Sarah and Carina have told me that before."

Forrest looked up at him. "Not Casey?" she said with the tiniest hint of a smile.

"Nah. If we get through the day without killing each other, then it was a good one."

She wiped her tears away. "I feel like complete shit for what I put your team through. I just never realized how much losing John on 9/11 had affected me. It colored every assessment I ever made against other agents. I…I can't seem to forget my past."

Jimmy leaned back against the tree and looked out over the cemetery. "I think I'm the last person who can tell anybody to forget their past. I don't know…just try to make yourself happy, I guess. I mean, your parents probably worked hard and made a lot of sacrifices so that you would grow up to be a good person. And I have to believe John would want you to be happy now."

He then froze as he made a startling realization. "I'm starting to think there might be something to believing in fate."

"What do you mean?" Forrest asked him.

"I…"

Jimmy was interrupted by a beep on his phone. He listened to the message on his voicemail. He then hung up and stared at his smartphone.

"I…I have to return to L.A."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure. But are you OK to drive home?"

Forrest nodded. "I'm staying at my brother's house. We have to go through my dad's things."

"I'll talk to you soon."

Jimmy took off for his car. He hoped he was only being paranoid. But why would Morgan leave him a voicemail?

 _ **National Security Agency – Fort Meade, MD  
May 14, 2016  
11:00 AM EDT**_

Casey patiently waited for the NSA techs to finish the download coming in from MI-6. Carina had called a couple of hours ago. She outlined the plan to entice the Azure Wind into attempting to go after the munitions depot inside the Iranian border and discussed the best way to implant agents in the area to intercept her. Casey had briefed Beckman regarding the Brits' plan, and she authorized Casey to lend any support they needed. Right now, however, he was interested in studying the intel British Intelligence had, especially since they had far more than what he had seen so far.

He took a seat at the computer and started to look at the images. Most of them were high-resolution satellite images from various countries. Based on the clothing the Azure Wind was wearing, Casey quickly figured out this was a female who was causing all of this damage. It was a smart strategy: women were suspected less when it came to suicide missions or sabotage such as what this woman was doing. However, none of the images had a clear picture of her face.

He then clicked on the mouse to look on the fourteenth image.

This image was taken from a security camera on the streets of Kabul. It was the closest shot of the Azure Wind he had seen thus far. He quickly ordered the tech to zoom in on the woman and clean up the image. The tech opened the image in photo-editing software and programmed it to clean up and sharpen the image.

"That's the best we can do with it," the tech said after fifteen minutes. He put the retouched image back on the large monitor. He then zoomed in and programmed the computer to repaint the image at maximum resolution. Casey took a good long look at the image. He stared at the woman's eyes.

His breath then caught in his throat.

"Ilsa?"


	28. When Kramer Hears About This

_Hello again. I was checking the stats on this story. It was one year ago tomorrow that I began this story. I still can't believe that. I've written over 200,000 words in this story and there's still plenty of chapters to go. There was no way in hell I ever envisioned this thing growing into the behemoth it has become. It does nothing short of amazes me, and I know the reason why is because all of you have been so wonderful with your reviews (even when you didn't like things I did) and your support. I can't lie: the last 18 months have been some of the toughest of my life, and this story has been one of the few rays of sunlight I've had. So I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you decided to get on the ride with me and enjoy this story._

 _This chapter jumps around quite a bit (and I might edit in a quick Chuck/Sarah blurb later, haven't decided yet), but this chapter begins to line up our ducks a bit as to where the story will be going. Just FYI, there's a lot of Jimmy Slade involvement here, but given what he goes through, I think you'll like it. It's very pertinent to the story. We also get to see how our favorite spy couple and their friends try to stay out of danger...and they don't exactly succeed._

 _I'd say the parts that are from the show are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions, but I don't think I lifted any stories from the show for this particular chapter (although I do crib a little bit from my prior stories). Anyway, I hope you like it, and please leave reviews as always._

 _(P.S. the title is an Airplane! reference. I'm sure you know how to complete the sentence. :-D )_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Versailles, France  
May 10, 2016  
10:30 PM CEST**_

Chuck and Sarah checked to make sure the locks were secure and the surveillance cameras for the chateau weren't picking anything up outside. They managed to get away from the café mere seconds before the police descended upon the area and arrested the four members of the cell who were attempting to commit yet another terrorist attack in Paris. They then met with one of Sarah's old contacts, who set them up in this beautiful location.

They made their way through the chateau to the main bedroom. Chuck put their clothes away while Sarah talked to her contact, who promised to have a new car for them by morning. Chuck sat on the bed. Now that the danger was over, he let loose a long exhale and began to shake a bit. He never thought he would be a part of something like this in his life. Sarah and he just prevented a catastrophe. He didn't even want to contemplate what would have happened had that terror cell succeeded. How Sarah and her team could do this for a living was still beyond his comprehension, even after all that he had done to help them. Ellie said he really hit the jackpot by meeting Sarah. Ellie had never been more right in her life, and that was saying quite a bit.

Sarah hung up her phone and walked over to him. "Chuck?" she asked.

He looked up at her with a sad-eyed smile. She caressed his cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"Sorry, I'm just…what happened tonight…"

She smiled and sat down in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. "What happened tonight is that you were amazing." She gave him a passionate kiss. "What you've done…and what you keep doing…I could never imagine anybody doing all of that."

"Um, not to split hairs, but I think you and the others have done that…and are awesome at it, as I have found out. Besides, it's just the Intersect. It's not really me."

Sarah grabbed his face hard. "The Intersect didn't help Carina open up about her past. The Intersect didn't help Casey find the guts to reconnect with Ilsa. The Intersect didn't get Jimmy to stop questioning himself so much. And the Intersect didn't save my life three times and make me realize I could be so much more than just a government spy. That was you, Charles Irving Bartowski. Don't think for one second I will ever let you forget that. What you've done for all of us is beyond belief. You have made such a difference…no, THE difference…in my life."

She pulled his lips to hers and gave him a feverish kiss, her fingers running through his hair. "I love you, Chuck. I am absolutely and unequivocally in love with you. And I always will be."

The sadness in Chuck's eyes quickly morphed into the same joyous look he had in the motel that morning in Barstow. He held Sarah as the two kissed, his departure from Stanford, his days at the Buy More, and his betrayal by Jill now a distant memory, never to return.

"I love you, too," he said gently, caressing her cheeks.

She cupped his chin in her hand. "You know what I want to do right now?"

Chuck raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I can guess, baby," he said, imitating Austin Powers.

"I want to dance."

"I guessed wrong," Chuck replied, still imitating Austin Powers.

Sarah got up and pulled Chuck up with her. "I got to dance with you exactly one time, at your sister's rehearsal dinner. Every other time I've wanted to dance with you, it was interrupted by our spy work. But we're safe for the night, so I want to have a real dance with you."

"OK, what song do you want to dance to?"

Sarah froze at that. "Oops, I…didn't think this through. I never had a particular song in mind."

"Don't you have a favorite song?" Sarah shied away at that. "Oh, we need to work on that."

Chuck went to his backpack and pulled out his smartphone. He scrolled through the songs on it and found one he liked. He attached the smartphone to the audio jack of the room's stereo system and hit play. He then walked over to Sarah and took her in his arms. They held each other tightly and swayed to the song coming out of the speakers.

"This is perfect," Sarah said, gazing into Chuck's eyes. "I don't think I've heard this song before."

"It's _Feeling Good_ by Nina Simone," Chuck replied.

"It's beautiful."

"As beautiful as the woman I'm dancing with."

Sarah looked bashfully at the ground. "OK, you really have to stop doing that."

"Then stop being beautiful."

She gave a gentle laugh. "You know, if you're going to do that, be prepared to be bombarded by comments about how handsome and sweet and caring you are."

"And I STILL can't get you to think of me as funny."

"OK! You're funny, too! Happy now?"

"I'm not sad," Chuck replied with a grin, making Sarah laugh hysterically.

They continued to dance, Sarah's head resting on Chuck's shoulder as he took in her scent. "You really love to dance?" he asked.

"One of my favorite things to do," she replied. "I don't get to do it enough."

"I imagine you've had to dance with your partners a few times on missions."

Sarah nodded. "Bryce was incredible. He was a great dance partner. We could have danced professionally had we decided to go that way."

"Have you ever had to dance with Casey?"

"No, thank God," she replied with a giggle. "Although there's this rumor floating around he was on a mission with a female agent a couple of years before we met and had to surveil a target out on the dance floor. Apparently, it was some sort of ballroom dance contest, and he and his partner actually took third place."

Chuck grinned at that image. "But Casey takes things a little too seriously sometimes," Sarah continued. "Bryce, Carina, and I were a lot more loose in the early days, a lot more carefree. He cured us of that. And it's probably a good thing he did before it got us killed on a mission."

"And Jimmy? Wait, I got this. He…is an amazing dancer but constantly claims he has two left feet."

"Almost right. When we first started, he really did have two left feet. He was a terrible dancer. But in fairness, he never had to learn how to dance before. So I did what any leader would do in my position."

"What's that?"

"Dumped it in Carina's lap and made her practice with him."

Chuck laughed heartily at that. "I can just picture it. It'd be like those behind-the-scenes stories on _Dancing with the Stars_ where the professional dancer is constantly yelling at the star to do better."

"If only it was that peaceful. But over time, he got really good and we were able to use him on missions. And Carina is still pissed off at me about it to this very day."

Chuck smiled, that very smile Sarah always loved to see. "How am I doing?"

"Well, there is one advantage you have over both Casey and Jimmy."

"What's that?"

Sarah stood on her toes and put her hands on the back of Chuck's neck, pulling his face to her. They shared an intense, avid kiss. The song faded out, but the two of them didn't notice.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
May 17, 2016  
5:30 PM PDT**_

Jimmy walked into the Buy More and took a look around. Thankfully, the store wasn't crowded, and the customers who were there didn't take notice of him. A couple of the employees spotted him, but they had already met him so they took his appearance in stride.

"Dude, you made it," Morgan called from behind him.

Jimmy turned around and saw Morgan in a green Buy More polo shirt.

"I didn't know if you'd call me back or not," Morgan said in a rush. "I left you a voicemail four days ago, but you didn't answer it, and I can't find Chuck and Sarah, and…"

"OK OK," Jimmy said, putting a hand up to calm Morgan down. "I'm sorry to not return your call. I was…" Jimmy suddenly remembered what he was doing five days ago…or what he almost did on that beach in Chicago. "…not important. Wait, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be in Hawaii with Anna?"

Morgan looked at the ground and shuffled his feet. "I was. I spent a week practicing and practicing to be a Benihana chef. But the only thing I could slice were my fingers. And then we're lying on the beach one day. Anna goes off and gets a drink from the bar. The next thing I know, she's making out with this total hunk of a bartender. It's…and then to come back here and beg for my job back. Emmett loved that one."

"Ouch. And I thought I had a bad week. Sorry, man."

"Thanks, but that's not why I called you. I mean, I tried calling Chuck, but his phone keeps going right to voicemail. I figured he's off with Sarah somewhere, but nobody knows where. Do you know where they went?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Sorry, Morgan. I haven't a clue where they're at. We kind of…"

Jimmy took a quick look around and pulled Morgan to one corner of the store, far away from everybody. "Look, you can't say anything about this. Not a word."

"I promise, buddy. What's going on?"

Jimmy exhaled. "They cancelled the show."

"No way! They cancelled it?"

Jimmy hissed at him to keep it down. "Yeah, they're not bringing it back. None of us took it well. The cast hasn't seen each other since before Ellie's wedding. Carina went to London to visit an old boyfriend, and I think John Casey has family back East, so he's out that way. I have no idea where Chuck and Sarah are, but I'm guessing they're off together somewhere."

"Oh, man! That totally sucks! That…that's not right. I thought the show was popular."

"It was. The producers really tap-danced around the reasons for cancelling it," Jimmy said, seething inside because he couldn't tell Morgan the real reason.

"OK, I just…I really needed to talk to Chuck. Something's going on."

"What do you mean?"

"I think there's someone trying to find me. I don't know. I've spotted them in the Buy More a couple of times in the last two days, and Lester said someone had asked where I was when I wasn't here."

Jimmy furrowed his brow. He clung to the hope he was being paranoid, but something didn't seem right. "Keep an eye out for them, Morgan. If they show up, call me right away. I'll call Case and Carina to see if they know where Chuck and Sarah are."

"Thanks, man," Morgan replied.

"Just curious, are Ellie and Devon back from their honeymoon?"

"Yeah, they were supposed to return today. They might be home right now."

"OK, thanks."

Jimmy left the Buy More and got into his car. He drove to Echo Park and took a peek in the courtyard. Morgan was right: Ellie and Devon had arrived and appeared to be heading out, looking a little tired but very happy. It was safe to say they got back to the apartment not long ago and were probably going out for a bite to eat because they were too tired to make anything at home.

Jimmy ran back to his car as he saw Ellie and Devon get into theirs and take off. Another car then started up and left the apartment complex following them. Jimmy started his car and drove in the same direction, keeping a reasonable distance so he wouldn't be seen. He saw Ellie and Devon go through a left turn. The car following them made the same left turn, and Jimmy got a good look at the person driving that car.

"Holy shit," he whispered in fear.

Now he REALLY wished he was just being paranoid.

 _ **Versailles, France  
May 11, 2016  
8:00 AM CEST**_

"Good morning."

Chuck stirred in the bed and stretched, moaning gently as he felt the soft cotton sheets. He turned and opened his eyes to see Sarah in a robe holding a tray of eggs, bacon, toast, and orange juice.

He smiled. "OK, so not fair."

She raised an eyebrow. "You've greeted me six times in the last two weeks with breakfast in bed, but I do it once and it's unfair?"

"Yeah, but there's a big difference. I…well, you…"

"Waiting," she replied with an ever-increasing grin.

"Why don't I just thank you for doing that and quit before I say something stupid."

She put the tray down on the bed. "A wise move," she said, grabbing his face and kissing him.

"Was your friend able to switch cars?"

Sarah nodded. "But I'm not sure we should leave right away. We don't really have a place to go where we will be safer than this."

"Plus, it's such a beautiful locale. I could stay here for days."

Sarah pulled back the covers and lay down next to Chuck. "So could I," she purred, planting kisses along his neck. Chuck began to reciprocate. His eye caught the TV, which was showing Sky News. He bolted upward and stared in shock.

Sarah looked up at him. "What is it?" She turned to see the TV. "Oh, my God."

The news graphic showed a picture of them dancing in Stockholm with the caption _Real Life Spies?_ Sarah quickly reached for the remote and turned up the volume.

"Is _Spy Girl_ the real thing?" the anchor read. "Sarah Walker, the beautiful actress and star of _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_ could very well be a secret agent, if reports from both Stockholm and here in Paris are confirmed. Swedish authorities have linked her and her boyfriend of eight months, Charles Carmichael, to the rescue of a financial advisor for the EU in a Stockholm ballroom two nights ago. And as reports continue to funnel in regarding the terrorist attack that was thwarted last night in Paris, eyewitnesses say two people who bear a close description to the famous couple were responsible for stopping four members of a Syrian terror cell from inflicting mass devastation on the city. Parisian authorities have made no comment regarding these rumors as their investigation continues."

"I don't believe this," Chuck said, falling back to the bed. "I thought we got out of there last night without anybody knowing."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they won't make the connection," Sarah replied.

Chuck looked at her. "But you're not optimistic about that."

"No," she conceded with a sigh. "I don't even want to think about what will happen when Beckman finds out, if she hasn't already."

"What do we do?"

Sarah was quiet for a moment. "I think all we can do for now is lay low. I'll have my friend send a trail in the wrong direction and make people think we left the country."

"Will that work?"

"I hope so. But one way or another, I know something we will definitely need."

He put his arms around her and nodded. "Or to be more accurate, three things."

Sarah snuggled into Chuck's embrace and they held each other tightly.

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – Washington, D.C.  
May 14, 2016  
4:00 PM EDT**_

Casey walked quickly into his office, throwing the most minimal of salutes to his assistant, who just had too much military training and respect to not salute him every time he saw him. He quickly went to his computer and brought up the enhanced image of Ilsa.

 _What the hell is she thinking?_

Casey couldn't believe it. Actually, he could believe it. To say Ilsa had the guts of a cat burglar would be understating it. Normally, French Intelligence rarely made high-risk plays like this. It appeared, however, after what happened last November, they were playing no-holds barred now. He also had to assume they would disavow her if she was caught.

His eyes then widened. He immediately went to the flash traffic memos from the past several days, scanning through the general reports that MI-6, the CIA, the DGSE, German FIS, and the Mossad exchanged with each other daily.

He got on the phone to the DGSE. "This is Colonel John Casey, DNI. I need details on the prison escape you reported on document INT-DON-26884."

"There are not a lot of details, Colonel," the assistant at the DGSE replied. "We have the name of the escaped prisoner: Victor Federov. They've just confirmed it was an inside job."

Casey hung up the phone and stared out into space. Federov couldn't return to Russia; he'd be killed there. He broke out of prison for only one reason: revenge. Casey knew what he had to do. Unfortunately, he didn't have the resources here to accomplish it...at least not without raising an eyebrow with Beckman. But he did know quite a few people in other intelligence services.

He did some research on his computer. He had several friends in high places in the German FIS and the Belgian VSSE. After what happened at the airport in Brussels a couple of months ago, surely those organizations wouldn't mind having someone of Casey's level of ability exerting some payback for them.

Casey got on a secured line to Berlin and requested a conference call with Belgian State Security Service. It was time to get out from behind his desk.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
May 17, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

Morgan directed the customer he was helping over to the registers. He wasn't in a particularly good mood given what had happened to him over the last week, but this very annoying customer spent a half-hour arguing that the newest _Halo_ game was crap compared to the previous version. He was both exhausted and pissed off.

And his night was just beginning.

He ducked down behind the shelves as the same person he saw twice before came in with two others, both of whom were wearing suits. They began to look around the store. Luckily, there were only a few customers shopping right now.

He pulled out his smartphone and dialed. "Jimmy, it's Morgan."

"What's going on?" Jimmy replied.

"You told me to call you if I see that guy again, and he's here. He's here with two other people. Who is this guy?"

Jimmy was stunned silent. Ellie and Devon emerged from the restaurant, and the same car was keeping an eye on them. Whoever this was, they must have known about Chuck and Sarah. It appeared that organization Miles boasted about in the Intersect room was the real thing, and this was their new strategy: go after Chuck's family and friends. But he was the only one in a position to stop them, and stopping two targets miles apart was impossible. Unless…

"Morgan, listen to me very carefully," Jimmy replied, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. "Hang up and then call Ellie. Tell her you got a flat tire, your mother needs some help, something. But get her and Devon to the Buy More. It's very important."

"Oh…OK, Jimmy," Morgan said, now even more scared. "Are you coming this way?"

"I'll be there soon."

"OK, see you in a few. I hope."

Morgan quickly dialed Ellie's number. "El, I'm so sorry. I tried calling Chuck but…do you know where he is?"

"He said something about going to Europe for a few weeks with Sarah, but he didn't give me any details," Ellie replied. "What's wrong?"

"No, it's just…my car got a flat tire, and I tried calling my mother, but she's not picking up. I kind of…can you give me a ride home? I'm at the Buy More."

"Why are you back in L.A.? Where's Anna?"

"In Hawaii still," Morgan muttered, the image of Anna making out with that bartender still burned into his mind. "It's…it's a long story, but basically she dumped me and I came back here."

Ellie exhaled in frustration. "We'll be right there."

"Thanks, Ellie. You are awesome."

"Pun intended."

"What? Oh, right. Sorry, yeah."

Ellie hung up her phone and turned to Devon. "We have to stop at the Buy More and give Morgan a ride home," she said tiredly

Devon nodded in sympathy. "Hopefully it'll be an easy day at work tomorrow."

Devon pulled out of the restaurant parking lot and headed for Burbank. The three agents in the car followed them, and Jimmy followed both cars. He kept his distance until he verified that Ellie and Devon were heading directly for the Buy More. He then pulled off the route and took a set of side streets at 70 MPH to beat both cars there. He parked behind the building so not to be seen by the agents, who would certainly identify him if they saw him. He picked the lock on the back door of the store and went down the hallway. He got out his smartphone and called Morgan.

"Morgan, are you in the store?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah, I'm by the appliances. What's going on?"

"Are those three people still in the store?"

"Still here. I'm trying to stay out of sight. Where are you?"

"Check your six."

Morgan turned around to see Jimmy behind the double doors to the back of the store. Morgan quickly walked over to him.

"Dude, what's going on? It feels like we're on the show right now. Only, you know, much, much scarier!"

Jimmy looked around. "I can't tell you everything right now, but Ellie and Devon have people following them, too. Right now, in fact."

"What? Why?"

"OK, that's part of that 'everything' category I can't tell you right now, but I need your help. Remember Thanksgiving?"

"What? Do we have a pineapple situation?"

"We will in a minute. When you see Ellie and Devon enter the store, pull the fire alarm, grab them, and run like hell. Meantime, I need your help setting something up."

"Set something up?"

Jimmy nodded. "Remember that episode we did in Barcelona with the nightclub?"

~/^\~

Ellie and Devon pulled into the Buy More lot and exited their car, not exactly in the best of moods. The agent who drove the car following them furrowed his brow and got on his smartphone.

"Do you have the other one covered?" he asked on his phone.

"He's in here. The other two just walked in. Why are they here?"

"I don't know. Something's not right. We're coming in."

He hung up his phone and turned to the two agents with him in the car. "Let's go," he said.

The three quickly exited the car and went into the Buy More. Ellie and Devon went through the store to the back and found Morgan by the audio department.

"Morgan, are you ready to go?" Ellie asked him. Morgan looked scared to death. "What's going on?"

"El, have you noticed anybody, like, following you anywhere?"

"No," she replied in complete confusion. "What, is someone following you?"

Morgan pointed a shaky hand in the direction of his stalker. "Kind of."

"Who is that?" Devon asked.

"I don't know. But we have to get everybody out of here right now."

"Why?" Ellie tried to ask, but Morgan ran for the fire alarm and pulled it. The alarm rang throughout the store, and the employees and customers quickly exited.

Morgan ran back to Ellie and Devon. "Quick! Out the back!"

"Do not move."

Morgan, Ellie, and Devon turned in surprise. The six agents who were following them had them surrounded. One of them broke away and stepped backwards to the Nerd Herd desk and grabbed the intercom.

"Agent Walker," the man announced. "I know you're here. Or someone from your team is. Unless you want me to execute these three right now, I suggest you come out from wherever you're hiding."

"What are they talking about?" Ellie asked in wide-eyed fear.

Jimmy walked down the aisle from the employees' breakroom with his hands raised.

"Agent Slade," the man who spoke on the P.A. said. "I should have guessed."

"Otto Kane," Jimmy replied, remembering the man who drove the car that followed Ellie and Devon. "How long has it been? Five years? Six?"

"Since you took out my former employer's entire operation and killed almost everyone in it?"

"They tried to kill thousands of innocent people. It didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Kane cocked his gun and pointed it at Jimmy's head. "As much as I'd enjoy blowing your brains out right now, I have a more important task to complete first. We want Agent Walker and Agent Bartowski."

"What do you mean AGENT Bartowski?" Ellie demanded.

"I can't give you what I don't have," Jimmy replied to Kane.

Emmett came running out of his office. "What the hell is going on? Who pulled…"

Kane turned and shot Emmett, who fell to the ground dead. Ellie gasped in horror and Devon held on to her.

"Who's next, Agent Slade?" Kane asked, sweeping the gun back and forth. "Shall it be his best friend, his brother-in-law? Shall I execute his sister? Get on the phone and demand they come here."

"Fine," Jimmy said in defeat.

One of the agents reached into Jimmy's pocket to pull out his smartphone. "Get dialing," they commanded.

Jimmy started dialing his smartphone. He gave Morgan a slight nod. He finished dialing and hit the Send button.

Every speaker on the racks in the audio department blasted out a very loud song at maximum volume, making everyone turn in shock and cover their ears. Morgan dove for Ellie and Devon, tackling them to the ground, as Jimmy gave a spinning kick to the agent who took his phone, knocking him to the ground. He dove for the man's gun and opened fire at the other agents. He took out one of them as he ducked behind a rack of DVDs.

"Get out of here!" he screamed to Morgan, Ellie, and Devon as another agent ran around. Jimmy rolled onto his back and fired at that agent, taking them out. He quickly got up and grabbed that agent's gun. He ran through the aisles low to the ground as another agent opened up with an Uzi. He spotted the agent and leaped into the air over one of the shelves, firing away with both guns and shooting that agent dead.

He landed and turned just in time to be knocked down by a very large agent. Jimmy tried to shake the cobwebs loose as the agent…who had at least six inches and sixty pounds on him…lifted him up by the lapels of his shirt and threw him into a big screen TV. Jimmy fell to the floor, dropping his guns, and the TV shattered underneath him. He rolled back and forth in a futile attempt to get up. The agent walked over to him sensing victory. He reached down to grab Jimmy, who swiped at him with a piece of jagged glass from the broken TV. The man recoiled as blood came out of his wrist. Jimmy got up and ran through the store with the man in pursuit. The agent caught up to him and tackled him to the ground. Jimmy slipped out from his grip and turned to face him. The man let out a primal scream and charged Jimmy. He grabbed a length of cable off of one of the shelves and stepped off a display to launch himself into the air, flying at the agent. He wrapped the cord around the agent's neck and used it to perform a horse-collar tackle, sending the man crashing hard to the ground. Jimmy fell to the floor himself, ramming his head on the edge of a display. He was completely dazed and unable to move.

Kane stood above Jimmy and aimed his gun at his head. "All of that for nothing, Slade." He began to pull the trigger.

Someone behind Kane smashed him in the back of the head with baseball bat, sending him to the ground.

"Don't you DARE mess with one of the stars of my favorite show!" Big Mike bellowed.

Jimmy's head began to clear despite being covered in blood. He looked up to see Big Mike, Ellie, Devon, and Morgan looking down at him.

He then shut his eyes in pain. "Aaah, hell."

 _ **MI-6 Headquarters – London, UK  
May 18, 2016  
1:00 PM BST**_

Carina and Cole returned to Grace Hawkinson. "What's going on, Hawk?" Cole asked her.

"We took the photo Agent Miller verified before and ran it through our best graphics programs," Grace replied. "We were able to clean up the image. It's not good enough for facial recognition software to give us a positive identification, but it's certainly an improvement over what we had before."

Grace put the upgraded image on one of the large monitors. Carina and Cole studied it. "No way," Carina whispered.

"You know her?" Cole asked.

"That looks like Ilsa Trinchina. She's an agent with the DGSE. They must have sent her off to sabotage ISIS operations."

"Ballsy move. But who can really blame Paris after all the shit they've been through in the last year. How do you know her?"

"That is John Casey's ex-girlfriend. She was in L.A. five months ago. We helped her take down the head of a Russian crime syndicate."

"Russian?" Cole stood in silence for a moment. He then went to one of the computers and sorted through the flash traffic memos. "What was the name of the Russian?"

"Victor Federov," Carina replied.

Cole stood up. "Shit. He escaped from prison." The three of them looked at each other. "He'd go after her, wouldn't he."

"In a heartbeat," Carina replied.

"Do you think Colonel Casey knows?" Grace asked.

Carina immediately got out her smartphone and quickly dialed Casey. "Pick up, Case. Pick up," she muttered to herself. She only got his voicemail. She then tried his office.

"This is Agent Miller. I need to speak with Colonel Casey, urgent," she told Casey's assistant.

"He's not here," the assistant replied. "He left the office a few days ago and I haven't heard from him since. I wish he'd call back. General Beckman is looking for him, too, and she's furious."

Carina hung up the phone. "He knows," Cole said quietly at seeing Carina's expression.

"That isn't the half of it," Carina replied apprehensively.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
May 17, 2016  
9:30 PM PDT**_

Jimmy sat at the table in the employees' breakroom, wincing in pain as Devon worked on stitching the cuts on his back and face. Jimmy contacted the local NSA office to process the Ring members he caught while a cleanup crew fixed the damage and made sure to sell the story that the store suffered a gas leak. The four dead agents…and Emmett…were carried out the back of store away from prying eyes.

"Agent Walker?" Ellie barked, as mad as anyone had ever seen her. "Agent Slade? You two are actual spies? What the hell have you done?"

"It's a long story," Jimmy replied guiltily.

"Then get to it faster."

"We are…covert agents for the government. I know that sounds insane, but it's true. Sarah, John Casey, Carina, and I work as a team. We use the TV show as a cover to account for us being in so many places."

"Oh, dude," Morgan replied, far more impressed than Ellie. "This is so cool! Actual spies? Like a team of James Bond's!"

"No, it is NOT cool," Ellie growled in no uncertain terms. "You put my brother in danger?"

"No, not…not on purpose, anyway." Jimmy exhaled. "Chuck came across a file of government secrets that Bryce Larkin sent him."

"Bryce Larkin? He hated Bryce! Bryce got him kicked out of Stanford and stole Jill from him!"

"That's why this story gets really long. The CIA discovered something about Chuck while he was at Stanford and they were going to basically draft him into working for the government, whether he wanted to or not. Bryce got him expelled from school to prevent that from happening."

"What government secrets?" Devon asked. "Why didn't Chuck just give them back?"

Jimmy hung his head. He stood no chance to lie his way out of this. They spent the last eight months keeping the secret from Chuck's family and friends to protect them. But keeping them in the dark was irrelevant now, given he barely got them away from being killed.

"There's a project the government developed called the Intersect. It was a computer designed to mine for patterns in data being collected by field agents to hopefully make connections we couldn't normally make. They encoded all of the data into images. It's like subliminal advertising: if you saw an image, then you knew the data stored in it. Chuck saw all of the images. He knew every secret of the government. He basically became the Intersect computer. I know it sounds crazy, but what he could do was nothing short of amazing. That's why he worked with us. Sarah got him the job on the show and pretended to be his girlfriend so we could keep him protected."

"What?!" Ellie was fuming. "Their relationship was fake?"

"Originally, yes. But then they really did fall in love. Sarah tried to stop herself at first, thinking she couldn't protect him and love him at the same time. But she finally decided she'd rather be with Chuck than work as a spy. Actually, you may have had a hand in it. Didn't you give her a little pep talk?"

"Oh." Ellie's austere expression became a little more bashful. "Yes, I kind of did. I just thought they were so much happier when they were together."

"And you were right. It was only a matter of time with those two. We all knew it would happen eventually. What Chuck did for this country…your brother is an honest-to-God hero. I'm not even remotely exaggerating that."

Jimmy finally looked up at Ellie. "And I think we'd all agree what any woman would see in Chuck. Really, Sarah never stood a chance. And believe me, what everyone loves about Jen Burton, that's all Sarah. Those two belonged together. No question about it."

"But what happened?" Morgan asked. "You said they cancelled the show. Does that mean they broke up the team for real?"

Jimmy nodded. "There were groups who wanted to use the Intersect for their own gain, like the ones who ruined your first wedding."

"Chuck told me he did that," Ellie protested. "He said that was his fault."

Jimmy shook his head. "It was a group called Fulcrum. They threatened to kill you if we didn't turn over the Intersect. Bryce Larkin gave himself up to protect you. We stopped them, but it cost Bryce his life."

"Why didn't Chuck just tell us the truth?" Devon asked.

"He couldn't. He couldn't say why Sarah found him and why all of us started hanging around together. The four of us…and Chuck…didn't say anything to keep you protected. But now…" Jimmy hung his head again.

"Is that why we haven't heard from Chuck?"

"After Fulcrum was gone and the government broke up the team, we all went our separate ways. John Casey was promoted and moved to D.C., Carina went to London and reunited with a British agent she met. Chuck and Sarah took off together, and I…"

Jimmy fell silent. "What?" Ellie prodded.

"Nothing," Jimmy said quietly.

"Wait a minute," Big Mike interjected. "If these bad guys are supposed to be gone, then who the hell did I have to pummel with my baseball bat?"

"We don't know. Before he died, Bryce told Chuck it was a group called the Ring. We only just found out about them; the night of your reception, in fact. I guess we just didn't realize they'd make a play like this. But it's safe to say they want Chuck and are willing to kill all of us to get him."

"So they'll keep coming after us?" Ellie said, back to the level of anger she had at the beginning.

"Not all of you." Jimmy rose from the chair, still in a lot of pain. "We've been keeping surveillance on the apartment and the store just to make sure nothing happened to you." Ellie glared at him. "Strictly for protection, Doc, but obviously we have to step that up now. The CIA will assign teams to guard you. It's like having your own Secret Service detail…amped up a few notches."

"You mean like the President has?" Morgan asked. "That is so epic!"

"It's…more of a pain than you think, Morgan," Jimmy replied to bring him back to Earth. "But not to worry. Their job is to blend into the background. Worst case scenario, you get driven around a lot rather than driving yourself. And your plans have to be slightly less spontaneous. No last-minute weekends up the coast."

"For how long?" Devon inquired, not particularly thrilled by the idea.

"Until we stop whatever this organization is."

"No," Ellie replied with a harsh gaze. "I'm not going to spend every waking moment under lock and key for something I didn't do. You and the team kept Chuck protected for eight months and brought down this Fulcrum organization; you can do the same thing to the Ring. I want Chuck and Sarah out of this! She is the greatest thing that ever happened to my little brother, and they deserve to walk away and live a happy life together! I don't care what it takes. You get your team back together and do whatever you have to do to stop these people. Do I make myself clear?"

Jimmy gave a quiet nod. And he thought Sarah was a tough cookie.

 _ **W Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
May 17, 2016  
11:30 PM PDT**_

Jimmy dragged his tired body into his hotel room and collapsed on the bed. He felt like complete hell. He never expected any of this to happen, and he was having a significant amount of guilt over it. Ellie's harsh words still rang in his ears. Not that he could blame her for being upset. Devon, Morgan, and she were almost killed just to get to Chuck and Sarah? He never wanted it to come to this but now it had. The Ring had decided to up the ante…significantly. And the fact the entire team was spread out over the planet made things so much worse. Ellie was right: the team had to be reunited. They had to stop the Ring and they had to find a way to get the Intersect out of Chuck again and get Sarah and him out of the spy business for good. But he didn't have a clue how to do any of that.

There was a knock at his door. He bolted upward in complete surprise. He approached the door slowly with his gun aimed since he wasn't expecting any visitors. He looked through the peephole and was taken by surprise. He immediately put his gun away and opened the door.

"What are you doing here?" Jimmy asked Alex Forrest.

"I…I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me," she said softly. "And I don't just mean rescuing me from that bastard Salazar. Thank you for being there for me at my father's burial, lending me a shoulder to cry on. I didn't really expect that to happen. But most of all, I wanted to say you were right. I need to change how I think and stop denying myself what I really want in life."

"Good," Jimmy replied. "I'm glad to hear that."

"Right now, though, there's only one thing that I really want."

"What's that?"

Alex stepped forward and took Jimmy's face in her hands, giving him a hot, sensuous kiss. His eyes shot open in surprise but Alex continued to kiss him, running her fingers through his hair as her hunger increased. She backed him up into the wall, pressing her entire body against him, as her tongue flitted like a bumblebee inside his mouth.

"Wait, what?" Jimmy panted, completely taken by surprise.

Alex's eyes bore into his. "Remember when you kissed me in Ted Roark's mansion? I thought my knees were going to buckle. I hadn't been kissed like that since my fiancé. Maybe not even then."

She pushed his shoulders hard against the wall. "You told me to find something that would make me happy. That something is you."

Alex lunged at Jimmy's lips again and continued to kiss him as if her life depended on it. She reached up and ripped his shirt off as she kicked the door closed. She unzipped her dress and let it fall to the floor, pressing her bare body against his chest as she worked to undo his belt. She pulled him over to the bed, removing his pants in the process.

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – Washington, D.C.  
May 18, 2016  
8:00 AM EDT**_

General Beckman marched down the hallway to Casey's office with enough steam coming out of her ears to power a locomotive. The fact that she caused this to happen didn't even register. She broke up the best team of spies in the government and still expected them to fall in line with whatever she wanted?

"Lieutenant, where is Colonel Casey?" Beckman demanded.

"I don't know, ma'am," Casey's assistant replied, who couldn't be shakier if he mainlined espresso into his veins. "I haven't seen him for two days."

"If he returns, you tell him to go to my office immediately," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

Beckman turned on her heel and marched down the hallway back to her office. She immediately got on her phone.

"Issue a directive to our allies in the intelligence community and in our departments. They are to detain the following individuals and transport them to Washington, D.C.: Colonel John Casey, Agent Jimmy Slade, Agent Carina Miller, Agent Sarah Walker, and Chuck Bartowski. Use whatever means necessary to bring them in, but I want all of them alive."

She slammed the phone down and picked up the testimony from the Ring agents that were captured. One way or another, she was going to find out why the team lied and didn't tell her Chuck uploaded the new Intersect.


	29. With A Little Help From My Friends

_Hello. This chapter was a lot tougher to write than I thought it would be. There were certain elements I wanted to get right, especially since they have a huge bearing on the rest of the story. I also have to give serious props to Marc Vun Kannon, who gave me a number of ideas for some of the conversations that took place in the chapter._

 _I'm going to try to keep within the two-week schedule I've been keeping (I miss the days when I could crank these chapters out once a week), but the school year is starting, and I'm registered to substitute teach in several districts. It may not be the wisest job to take given my health scare last year, but better than unemployment, right?_

 _I hope you enjoy the chapter. FYI, there are a couple of f-bombs in this, but I know you'll love at least one of them. Please let me know what you liked about it (even that one piece I cribbed from **Chuck vs. the Pink Slip** ). And of course, NBC and Fake Empire Productions is still responsible for their material. Please leave reviews._

 _Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **Versailles, France  
May 18, 2016  
2:00 PM CEST**_

The bad news was, to avoid the throngs of fans and paparazzi who wanted to find out if Chuck and Sarah were really spies, the two had to remain inside the chateau together for seven days.

The good news was, to avoid the throngs of fans and paparazzi who wanted to find out if Chuck and Sarah were really spies, the two had to remain inside the chateau together for seven days.

Thanks to a well-stocked hiding place and an insatiable desire for one another, the past week had been a whirlwind of romance for Chuck and Sarah. They took the occasional walk around the grounds, careful not to walk anywhere that might risk them to exposure. They prepared several meals in the extravagant kitchen…Sarah with her skills from spy training and Chuck with his Intersect. But a significant portion of that time was spent intimately, the two expressing their love for one another. It was a feeling Chuck thought was reserved for romance novels and love stories in those movies Ellie used to force him to watch because they had only one TV growing up and she controlled it. For Sarah, she had fallen in love for the second time in her life. But this one was so different than her time with Bryce. There were no barriers, no need to pretend with Chuck. Best of all, Chuck gave her this chance to live the life she truly dreamed of since she was a child. A life away from cons and ridicule and being used by the government as they saw fit.

Sarah walked down the hallway on the second floor and was greeted with the sounds of heavy breathing and grunting. She stopped in surprise and a smile drew itself across her face. She walked into a room several down from their bedroom, where someone had set up a small gym. She had used it a few times during the last week, but she was quite surprised to find Chuck in there working on some Nautilus equipment. She had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing at Chuck struggling with the bench press. At a weight she normally could do with ease.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm…using…the bench press," Chuck grunted as he struggled with the machine.

"OK, let me rephrase the question. WHY are you doing that?"

Chuck finally let go of the bench press, which landed with a hard clank. "I don't want to be one of those guys who gets a girlfriend and then takes everything for granted. I want to prove to you how much I love you and want to be with you."

"And the way you do that is to turn yourself into Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

"OK, not my proudest moment. But do you even get how attractive the people on your team are? You look up the word 'stunning' in the dictionary and you'll find Carina's picture. And whenever Jimmy goes somewhere, it's like…better than seeing Tom Cruise. And he'll never ruin your couch. Even Casey gets some very raunchy emails from the ladies. And you…I mean, to call you beautiful…beautiful doesn't even begin to describe you. The four of you set the bar pretty high, you know."

Sarah quietly growled and straddled Chuck. "This is starting to get annoying. Get this through your head right now. YOU…ARE…INCREDIBLY…HANDSOME. You are gorgeous, in fact. And best of all, as beautiful as you are on the outside, you're even more beautiful on the inside."

She leaned down and kissed him hard before pulling back and looking into those puppy-dog brown eyes. "I spent eight months having so much trouble saying no to you because of those pretty eyes and that brilliant smile. They always put me in a good mood. And how you wanted to help me and the team…I've never met anybody like you. But I am so grateful I have. So stop thinking you're not good-looking. Otherwise I'll start smacking your upside the head like I do with Jimmy."

Chuck shuddered at the thought. "Yes, ma'am," he replied reverently.

Sarah giggled and lay on top of Chuck to continue their makeout session. They were interrupted by Sarah's smartphone.

"Sorry," she said to Chuck as she pulled out her smartphone. "Hello? Is everything OK, Lana?"

Chuck sat up slightly. Lana had been helping Sarah and him stay out of sight. Typically, she didn't call unless it was important. And the look on Sarah's face indicated the news was not good.

Sarah hung up her phone and immediately got up, pulling Chuck up with her. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Lana just heard from the DGSE. Beckman put out the order to capture us."

"Oh, God," Chuck said, completely crestfallen.

"We need to get out of here before they arrive. They know about this safehouse. This would be one of the first places they'd search."

Both of them ran to the bedroom to gather their things.

 _ **W Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
May 18, 2016  
7:00 AM PDT**_

Alex slowly stirred in the bed. It had been well over a dozen years since she felt this relaxed, this at peace. There was no doubt in her mind she made the right decision last night. The more she thought about it, the more she regretted her attitude towards the job over her long career. Her revenge-fueled hatred because of 9/11 made her one of the most successful and most dangerous agents in the CIA, but it came at a very high cost. The carefree, hellfire blonde that occupied her body in high school and college had disappeared…and almost forever. Sooner or later, her unyielding attitude towards assets and other agents would have gotten her or someone else killed. And that hot tomboy from Philadelphia who became the bane of a policeman father's existence with her devilish attitude would have ceased to exist. She felt fortunate Walker's team stuck to their guns and showed her how to be a truly effective spy and how to work together with others.

And looking at Jimmy's muscular form sleeping next to her, she was really feeling the good fortune. She certainly felt it quite a number of times last night.

It wasn't even about his looks…although it certainly didn't hurt he could rival guys like George Clooney and Bradley Cooper in that department. She kept a copy of that 2015 issue of People Magazine's _Sexiest Men Alive that_ he was in. Damn that David Beckham winning, anyway. But there was a lot more to Jimmy than that. She had read the quarterly reports Agent Walker had filed on him as part of her duties as team lead. When Alex thought about it, she shouldn't have been surprised to see him drop everything to rescue her from capture. And it surprised her even less when he tracked her down and comforted her at her father's burial. That was the type of person he was.

 _What was he doing when I sent out that distress signal?_ she thought. He had mentioned it but never elaborated on it. It was starting to bother her. There was something under the surface he didn't want her to know.

Jimmy quietly moaned, and Alex turned her attention back to him. She slid on top of him and started planting kisses along his neck and chest. He stirred awake.

"Good morning," he said timidly.

"Good morning yourself," she purred, quite interested in picking up where they left off last night.

Jimmy looked up at her and brushed some of her hair back. He then shook his head and gave a little laugh.

"What?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I still find it hard to believe you saw _They Live_. You're way too good-looking to be that nerdy."

Alex shrugged. "There's kind of a story behind that. I was sixteen and was at a party at this one guy's house. Typical teenage party with the music and the alcohol and so on. I was down in the basement, and _They Live_ was playing on some cable channel. I had a thing for this senior, Gabe Wilton. We started making out on the couch and it escalated from there. I figured I had hit the jackpot having a guy that hot…and a senior to boot…for my first time."

"So, what happened?" Jimmy asked with piqued curiosity.

"It was…disappointing." Both of them grinned at that. "I think it might have been his first time, too. I just lay there half watching the movie and half hoping he'd get better, but he didn't. Thankfully I had two more years in high school and then four years of college, so I was never short of dates."

"So you're not actually nerdy?"

"I like some things. I watched a lot of _Star Trek_. Mostly _Next Generation_ , but I thought the new movies were pretty good. I saw all the _Star Wars_ films, but who hasn't. We had to read _The Hobbit_ in high school. When I was a child, sometimes I'd sit with my father after he finished third shift and watch reruns of _The Twilight Zone_ with him."

"What about _Battlestar Galactica_?"

"Nah, not so much. I'm more of an action-comedy person."

"That seems weird, given what we do for a living."

"Would you rather I get weepy over romantic films? I bawl my eyes out over Rose losing Jack on the Titanic?"

Jimmy nodded. "That's a good point. Besides, they've already proved there was enough room on the door for both of them."

Alex laughed and gave him a kiss. "OK, now you."

"Now me…what?" Jimmy asked in confusion.

"I told you about my first time; now it's your turn."

Jimmy shied away. "Do I have to?"

"Come on. There's no way it can be worse than losing it while watching a Rowdy Roddy Piper film. Unless it was, like, losing it while watching Sgt. Slaughter jumping off the top rope or smashing someone into the turnbuckles."

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

"Try me."

Jimmy exhaled slowly. "This…woman came up to my hotel room one night and…just started kissing me. I was shocked she was doing it. I mean, we had met a couple of times already. I gave her some advice and she decided to follow it. She said there was one thing that would make her happy in life and that was me, so…"

Alex froze. "No…"

Jimmy nodded weakly. "Yeah."

"No. No way," Alex insisted. "I'm calling bullshit. You're making this up."

"Why would a guy make up a story that makes him look like a total loser?"

"Your first time was last night with me?! ?!" she exclaimed in total shock.

"I'm surprised you couldn't tell by my reaction. I mean, I must have had a goofier look on my face than Amy did when Sheldon finally plowed her on _The Big Bang Theory_."

"I still don't believe it! You were way too good for this to be your first time. How have you never had sex before? I mean, you're one of the best agents in the CIA, one of the fans' favorites on the TV show, and you're major-league hot!"

"It's…it's nothing," Jimmy muttered quietly.

The shocked smile on Alex disappeared instantly. "That's the third time you've done that."

"What?"

"You clammed up when you were about to say something personal. You did it when you found me tied up, after my father's burial, and just now. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jimmy replied, shying away even more.

She gently caressed his face. "What is going on? What were you doing when I sent out that distress call?" Jimmy was still quiet. "Look, I know I don't have a right to demand anything of you, but what all of you did for me…especially you…I just need to know what's wrong."

"It's stupid."

"Please just tell me."

Jimmy looked away for a moment. His already quiet voice got even softer. "After Fulcrum was taken down, Beckman cancelled the show and broke up the team."

Alex paused to take that in, eventually shaking her head. "That was a stupid move. And she made that call completely on her own. There isn't a chance in hell I would have recommended that. Even if Walker really had compromised her status as an agent, there's no way you and Miller and Casey should have been broken up. It should have been obvious to Beckman the four of you work great together."

"I didn't know what to do or where to go. I just couldn't face anybody knowing everything had fallen apart. I couldn't handle it. Then I just…I…"

Alex saw Jimmy's eyes welling up. She sat up in the bed and pulled Jimmy up with her. "What?" she insisted.

"When…when you called…I was about to…end my life."

Alex stared at him in silence. "I told you it was stupid," Jimmy whispered as he hung his head in shame.

She gently lifted his face and gazed into his eyes. "Most people might think that, but when I found out my fiancé was killed in the Pentagon on 9/11, I tried to do the same thing. And had my roommate at Quantico walked into our room ten seconds later, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. I've been there, too. To have everything you worked so hard to accomplish taken away in one moment. With no rhyme or reason to it, either."

"I only lost a damn TV show. You lost the love of your life. It doesn't even compare. I feel like an even bigger asshole now."

Alex wrapped her arms around Jimmy and pulled him to her. "Don't. Wanting to kill yourself when the life you know has been taken away isn't that far-fetched. People have ended their lives over far less than that. But this horrific self-image you have that Walker talks about in her reports? I just don't get it."

"It's…I…" Jimmy stammered, unable to hold Alex's gaze.

"The first time I met you, you were nothing like what I expected. You were full of piss and fire and took charge of that mission in Roark's mansion. I was amazed. But what you're doing now…both Walker and Miller have written that about you. Both of them think you're an outstanding agent, good enough to lead your own team. And you know what? I agree with them. But none of that means anything if you don't believe it."

Alex grabbed his face hard. "You said I should forget my past and find something that would make me happy. And you were right. But you have to do the same thing. I don't care how awful your life was before. Unless you plan to board the _Enterprise_ and slingshot around the sun, you'll never see it again. You are not that person and you probably never were. What you are now is pretty goddamn incredible. And the world needs someone like you in it. God knows I need you, given how much you've done for me.

"So enough of this self-hating bullshit. I got sick of it after five seconds; how do you think your team feels having had to put up with it all this time? I never dated a loser before and I'm sure as hell not going to start now. Be that confident, daring person you were when we first met. I'm starting a new life and you're coming with me."

She grabbed the back of his head and kissed him with every bit of energy she had, pressing herself up against him. He began to respond with equal fire, running his fingers through her long hair as the two could jump-start a parking lot with the electricity they were generating.

Alex pulled back and saw the gentle smile on his face. "Besides, how can anybody hate themselves when the fans want him to be the next James Bond?" she asked.

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. Those articles are so lame. How many times have they put out lists like that?"

"All the time. But an American playing James Bond? And this time people aren't laughing it off."

"Well, I must admit, I'm quite flattered," Jimmy replied with a Scottish accent, attempting to imitate Sean Connery.

Alex gave him a look. "Yeah, you might have been right the first time. Those articles are so lame."

He made a face at her. "You're a riot," he grumbled. She grinned and tackled him back on the bed, kissing him hard.

 _ **Route Nationale 12 – Jouars-Pontchartrain, France  
May 18, 2016  
3:00 PM CEST**_

Sarah pushed the convertible to well over 90 MPH as she tried to get away from the four cars the DGSE sent to retrieve them. She knew this could happen, but either she had too little faith in the CIA's interrogation team or too much in the Ring agents that were captured to not talk. She wanted to run away with Chuck because she figured Beckman would react exactly as she did. If she had little interest in removing the old Intersect from Chuck, there was no way in hell she'd let him walk away now.

"We go any faster, Sarah, we'll run into Marty McFly and the Doc," Chuck shouted over the roar of the engine and the passing wind.

"Would you stop with the movie references?" Sarah hissed. "We've already established I haven't seen enough movies!"

"Sorry. Do we know where we can go?"

"I have no idea. Right now, we'll be lucky to get away. If we do, we could try to sneak on a flight somewhere and find Carina in London. Maybe Cole and she can hide us until we figure out what to do."

"Oh, God," Chuck muttered, sitting back in his seat and shutting his eyes in desperation. "I really didn't want it to come to this. I should have…"

"No! Do not even go there! After everything you did, you deserve to be done with the government. All of us wanted you to get your life back and I'm going to make sure it stays that way!"

Chuck turned back to her with a smile. "With one very important and very wonderful addition."

Sarah glanced over at him felt that warmth, that comfort she always got from his smile. That sense of…

"SARAH!" Chuck screamed.

Sarah turned her attention back to the road but not fast enough to avoid the spike strip the DGSE laid out for them. All four tires blew, and the car careened out of control. Sarah tried to steer it back straight but it was too late. The car skidded off the road and landed in a ditch at the foot of a large hill with a hotel resort at the top of it.

"Chuck!" Sarah cried, not seeing him moving. She unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed his face hard and looked him over to see if he was injured. "Chuck!"

Slowly he stirred awake, blinking his eyes a few times. He then shook his head clear. "Wow, it was like you and Bryce in that episode on the Autobahn."

Sarah gave him a kiss. "In all honesty, that was our stunt team. They won an Emmy for that," she confessed as she unbuckled Chuck's seatbelt.

She quickly stood up and jumped out of the wrecked convertible, running around to Chuck's side and helping him out. "We have to go."

They ran down the road to the driveway that led up to the hotel. They ascended the hill as the cars that had pursued them got past the spike strip and approached the driveway. Chuck and Sarah made it into the hotel and immediately ran up the stairs.

"Oh…oh God," Chuck panted, completely out of breath. "I have to make a mental note. More exercise, less X-Box."

"We have to find a way out of here," Sarah quickly said.

"Agent Walker, Agent Bartowski, please stay where you are," one of the DGSE agents said as the others aimed their weapons at them. "We have been instructed to remand you back to Washington."

Both Chuck and Sarah put their hands up slowly. The agents began walking up the stairs to where Chuck and Sarah were. Chuck looked to his right to see a housekeeper watching in shock. She was hanging onto a heavy vacuum that was plugged in a half-flight down on the landing. He then began to flash, seeing the specs on the vacuum and various physics equations.

Chuck pushed Sarah to the side and grabbed the vacuum, whipping it down the stairs. The long cord got wrapped into the feet of the four agents, tripping all of them. They fell back to the landing as Chuck and Sarah took off again, finding a stairwell that led to the roof.

"We need to find a ladder down to the street or another door to go into," Sarah said quickly. "Those four will be here any second."

They found another door at the other end of the roof and tried to open it, but it was locked. "Dammit," Sarah cursed. "My gear is in the trunk of the car."

Chuck took a peek over the roof. "Wouldn't do us any good. There are a dozen agents surrounding the building."

He looked around quickly and saw a power line attached to the roof and leading down the hill on the opposite side from the road. He had another flash, seeing more physics equations.

He looked down at himself and immediately removed his belt. "What are you doing?" Sarah demanded.

"Zip line!" Chuck replied quickly, wrapping the belt around one of his wrists. "It'll work, I promise."

Sarah stared at the power line momentarily before nodding. "OK, I trust you."

The four DGSE agents burst onto the roof. Chuck threw his belt around the power line as Sarah climbed onto him. He jumped off the roof and the two slid down the power line as the four DGSE agents tried to get them. They made it all the way down the hill and caught the electrical tower to which the line was attached. They quickly descended and ran through the woods, disappearing from sight.

"I don't believe that worked!" Chuck said in amazement.

"It worked, but we're in real trouble now," Sarah replied. "We can't use Lana anymore, we have no means of transportation, and we have to assume every intelligence agency in Europe is looking for us."

Chuck nodded. "Let's hope we can find Carina."

"And hope she knows where Casey and Jimmy are."

The two walked to the nearest town to see if they could contact Carina. Chuck stayed a step behind Sarah as he winced in pain.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
May 18, 2016  
10:00 AM PDT**_

Jimmy walked through the courtyard and knocked on the door to Ellie's and Devon's apartment. He had made this decision on the way back to his hotel last night, but he wanted to wait until the intense stress of the incident in the Buy More had passed. Ellie was furious with him and rightly so. At this point, she deserved to know the truth. He vowed to himself he would answer every question she had and not try to come up with some moronic lie like he had in the past to keep Chuck's secret. Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and Big Mike were hip-deep in this. The Ring knew who they were and demonstrated no qualms about harming them. They deserved to know everything.

Ellie answered the door. "Doc, I…I just wanted to say how sorry I was about all of this," Jimmy said humbly. "Please believe me that we did everything we could to protect Chuck. All of us, Case, Carina, me…we wanted Chuck out of the spy life and we wanted him to be with Sarah. And we sure as hell never wanted any danger to befall any of you."

Ellie stared at him for a moment. She then shook her head and quietly chuckled to herself. "You stopped a half-dozen agents from killing Morgan, my husband, and me single-handedly, protected Chuck for the last eight months, and I all I could do was berate you over it. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who owes you an apology."

Jimmy gave her a shy smile as she stepped aside to let him in. Devon was at the kitchen table pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Little cup o' joe for the superspy?" he said with a grin, waving the coffee pot.

"Thanks," Jimmy replied. Devon gestured for Jimmy to sit at the kitchen table, which he did. "To be fair, Big Mike got the last guy. But I wanted to come by and see if you were OK after what happened last night. And after all of that…I think I should be totally up-front with you. Answer any questions you might have."

Ellie sat down at the table. "This is…you're right. This was a lot to take last night. How…how did all of this start? When did it start involving Chuck?"

"We came to town around the time you knew about his date with Sarah. Sarah walked into the Buy More and asked him out on a date. That was a setup, of course, to find out what he knew and how he got the Intersect from Bryce. Apparently Bryce emailed it to him."

"But Bryce disappeared. They didn't even explain his departure from the show. One season he was there; the next it was you."

"According to what Bryce told us, this group called Fulcrum was trying to steal the Intersect and they were very close. Can you imagine the damage possible if some enemy group knew every secret in the government? Bryce stole the data before anybody else could. But he didn't know who to trust. Chuck was the only one he could count on. And as we found out, that was because he knew about Chuck way back at Stanford, what Chuck was capable of. He disappeared, and we thought he had been shot to death. But he was really working undercover to take down Fulcrum. That's why you suddenly saw me on the show without explanation. They put me on Sarah's team and we continued to go on missions while doing the show. We were a good team, but when Chuck started working with us, our success rate went through the roof."

"But now Bryce is…" Devon started.

Jimmy nodded sadly. "After we got the original Intersect out of Chuck, a new one was created that Bryce was supposed to receive, but he was attacked by The Ring. He was shot and killed, and they got within an inch of killing all of us. But then…"

Jimmy shook his head, still unable to believe that night actually happened. "Then what?" Ellie prompted.

"He uploaded the new-and-improved Intersect. Chuck took out all of those Ring agents…by himself. He saved our lives. He was…he was absolutely amazing."

"I knew it," Devon beamed. "I knew he wasn't a total loser."

Ellie glared at him and Devon guiltily backed away. "But he took off with Sarah?" she asked.

Jimmy nodded. "Ever since the beginning, all of us knew Sarah had a thing for Chuck. We never saw her more relaxed, more happy than when he came into the picture. The problem was, you have to have a bit of a detachment from an asset if you want to protect them effectively. But I think we'd have to agree that's impossible with Chuck. He's that good of a person, easily the best asset we've ever had to guard. Not only that, he wanted to do everything to help us, and I don't just mean with missions. Thanks to Chuck, Casey reunited with his old girlfriend, Carina became more open and trusting, and obviously Sarah fell in love with the guy. She wanted to give him his life back, but you can imagine the government not wanting to give up someone with all of these amazing abilities that Chuck now has. She's trying to keep him safe and out of the spy business for good."

Ellie smiled momentarily at that thought before a not-so-wonderful thought went through her mind. "You said all of you were trying to keep us out of danger, too? Were we really in that much danger?"

"We tried our best. A lot of the things we did…the tailgating at Stanford, going to Sarah's high school reunion, Chuck finding Jill, our trip to New York…were missions where we tried to cover up what we were really doing. But the danger got pretty damn close. You remember that patient you had who was poisoned? He didn't pull through?" Ellie nodded. "He was a nuclear scientist for the government who had sensitive data. The man who killed him tried to go after you because the man slipped the data in your lab coat. You were poisoned in the same way, and then so were Chuck, Sarah, and Casey. Over Sarah's and Casey's protests, Chuck chose to save your life instead of his own."

"Oh, my God," Ellie breathed.

"He refused to let you die, even though every secret of the government would have died with him. He wouldn't even take the antidote before Sarah and Casey. It didn't even register how important he was. Saving you and Sarah and Casey was the only thing on his mind."

Devon smiled at that thought. Clearly he married into the right family. "So the whole thing about Jill and him breaking up with Sarah? That was fake, too?"

"All a setup. I have to give all the credit in the world to Chuck; it was his idea to arrange the breakup so he could get close to Jill and find out if her company was making a bioweapon. And then how he handled himself when Jill betrayed him and tried to deliver him to the enemy. He protected the CIA from a major data breach and saved our lives."

Jimmy thought about what he just said and gave a laugh. "Hell, I can't even tell you how many times he saved our lives, especially Sarah's. Honestly, part of me wishes he'd stay a spy. He's so good at it."

Ellie glared at him. "I know, I know. We'll get him out, I promise," Jimmy reassured her. "Sarah's never been so happy in her life. And what Chuck's done for Carina, for Case, for me…he deserves to have someone as awesome as Sarah."

"But how are you going to convince him to come back?" Devon asked. "I mean, if the government used him before, why wouldn't they do everything in their power to keep him now that he's even better?"

"One problem at a time," Jimmy replied. "First, we have to make sure you and Ellie and Morgan are protected. If Chuck thinks you're even remotely in danger, he'd give himself up in a heartbeat. I have to return to my hotel, but I'll return at 2PM and I'll tell Morgan to be here by then. You'll meet your protective detail. Not to worry; they screen candidates to match the personalities of the people they guard to make the relationship as easy as possible. Devon, you'll probably get someone who likes to parachute and climb mountains to watch you. Ellie, you'll likely get someone similar to Sarah or Carina, probably who took a few med courses in college so you two have something to talk about. Who they'll get for Morgan…I don't even want to picture it. But all of you will be safe. That I guarantee."

Ellie and Devon laughed at that. Jimmy rose from the table. "I'll see you over there in a few hours."

Ellie walked around and hugged him tightly. "Thank you for looking after Chuck."

"Glad to do it," Jimmy replied. He pulled back to see Devon giving him a weird look. "Uh, in my defense, she hugged me," Jimmy said nervously.

"I know," Devon sighed. "She got to hug one of her 'freebies'."

Jimmy's eyes widened and he looked back and forth between the two. "OK…awkward moment with a newlywed couple. Sadly, not the first time."

Devon grinned and hugged him, too. "Just messin' with ya, buddy. Thanks for watching out for us."

Jimmy exited the apartment.

~/^\~

Jimmy arrived back at his hotel and opened the door to his room, only to be greeted by a half-dozen agents with their guns drawn.

"Agent Slade? NSA, Western Branch," the team lead said. "We have orders to take you into custody and return you to Washington, D.C."

Jimmy stared in shock. _That bitch found out_ , he thought angrily. Beckman must have gotten the captured Ring agents to talk and admit Chuck saved the day in the Intersect room. The team had falsified their reports in order to get Chuck out of the spy business for good, but three weeks was the best they could do.

Four of the agents kept their guns trained on Jimmy as the other two moved him against the wall and searched him. They then put his hands behind his back and put on handcuffs.

"About time you showed up," a voice called out from the door.

Everyone turned to see Alex Forrest there. "I've been working on him, trying to figure out if he knew where the others were."

"We have orders to take him in, Agent Forrest," the team lead replied. "Agent Slade and the others falsified reports on their mission."

"I'll take care of that part. Keep up the search for his friends. They may still be here in L.A. I'll get Agent Slade back to D.C."

The team lead hesitated. "That's an order, Lieutenant," Forrest said in no uncertain terms. "I'll let you know if he tells me anything else."

The lead looked at Alex. He knew the nasty reputation of Agent Forrest, and he wasn't in much of a mood to challenge her. "Move out," he ordered his team.

The NSA team left. Jimmy turned to Alex in absolute horror. "I can't believe you'd do that. Not even you."

Alex was taken back. "Wait, you believed that?" She started to laugh. "Wow, maybe I should be on the show."

Jimmy's hatred did a complete 180. "You mean…"

"After what that bitch Beckman did, hauling your asses in is complete and total bullshit! Everything you did with Bartowski and she wants to hang you for it? Fuck her!"

Jimmy grew pensive. "You realize you just threw away your whole career, right? You're in this now. You're hip-deep in the shit like the rest of us."

"You were right about me already. I trust that you had good reason to do whatever it is that has Beckman pissed off. For once, I'm going to do what's right instead of blindly following the rules."

She walked up to him and gave him an ardent kiss. "It's the least I owe you."

"Thanks," Jimmy replied with his traditional shy smile. He then half-turned, expecting Alex to uncuff him.

"Oh, I just can't do that," she purred. "After the fun we had last night, how can I pass up an opportunity like this?"

She grabbed the back of his head and kissed him hard, her tongue eagerly teasing his. With her other hand, she removed his belt and began to remove his pants.

"Wait," Jimmy protested. "I'm not sure this is…"

Alex slipped her hand inside of his boxers, turning his protests into moans. "You were very good to me last night," she panted, walking him back to the bed. "Time to show you how good I can be."

She pushed him onto the bed and continued to kiss him hard.

 _ **Lankaran, Azerbaijan  
May 18, 2016  
4:00 PM AZT**_

Ilsa walked through the marketplace, seeing various stores selling food, clothing, and other items the average Azerbaijani would need on a daily basis. Unlike a lot of her other locales, it was easier for her to blend in as herself rather than covering herself with a niqab. A population of over 200,000 also meant supplies were easier to come across.

She intercepted the information a few days ago from the British Navy about the pending strike on Astara, only sixty kilometers from Lankaran just over the border in Iran. She found an Internet café and did some research. If there was a munitions depot, ISIS was hiding it well. Scanning photos of the mountainous area, she couldn't be certain where they might house their stronghold. But she knew she had two days to locate it and hack the Ministry of Defence's servers to insure the correct coordinates were available to launch a strike. The second part was easy; finding the coordinates for them was the real challenge.

As she purchased a few pieces of a local bread that was popular with Azerbaijanis and a bottle of water, she felt the presence of someone following her. She feared this from the day the DGSE sent her on this dangerous assignment: she would be a myth forever. Her success rate would have given her awards of the highest order in France…if anybody was allowed to know about them. But now she got the feeling someone was onto her.

She casually walked down the marketplace, careful not to give away any hints she was aware of her tail. She turned a corner and walked quickly down the sidewalk, slipping behind a building to remain out of sight. The person following her turned the corner and began to walk in the same direction. Ilsa readied herself. The person crossed behind the store, and Ilsa let loose with a spinning kick, knocking her follower to the ground. She was ready to go on the offensive, pulling out a very sharp knife from behind her back.

"Ilsa," the man grumbled in pain, trying to get his bearings.

The voice was quite familiar, and Ilsa stopped dead in her tracks. She immediately bent down and turned the person around.

"John?" she whispered in total shock and a considerable amount of joy. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard. "What the hell are you doing here?"

John slowly stood but continued to let Ilsa kiss him. "I came looking for you. You were about to travel to Astara."

Ilsa was even more shocked. "How do you know about that?" she asked in complete amazement.

"It was a setup," Casey quickly replied, looking around to make sure they weren't being followed. "We gave you a target to find so we could get you out of trouble."

"John, this is an assignment. Paris ordered me to go deep undercover to help take out ISIS."

"I know. I've been reading the memos ever since moving to D.C. But you're in danger. I was able to find you. How long do you think it'll take Victor Federov to find you?"

Ilsa was silent. "He escaped prison?"

Casey nodded. "It sounded like he had help, too. We have to get you out of the Middle East, Ilsa. You've made a lot of enemies, and you know Federov will be out for revenge."

Ilsa exhaled. She had made a tremendous difference since she last saw Casey five months ago, but he was right. With Victor on the loose, her cover being compromised was the least of her problems.

She nodded. "Let's head back. Hopefully the DGSE can use me elsewhere."

Casey pulled out his gun and started to lead Ilsa to the other end of the marketplace where his vehicle was. They came around a corner…and ran directly into a dozen jihadists, who had staked themselves around the marketplace waiting to find Ilsa.

They confiscated Casey's gun and Ilsa's knife. One of them took Casey's car keys and went to confiscate all of the weapons and gear the FIS and VSSE provided while two others handcuffed Casey and Ilsa.

"Knowing you, John Casey, I think my associates will believe it's Christmas when they search your car. Thank you for the wonderful presents."

Casey and Ilsa turned towards the voice. Victor Federov was there.

"Right where I told you she'd be," Federov told the ISIS soldiers. "And an extra-added bonus…an American spy."

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
May 18, 2016  
2:00 PM PDT**_

Jimmy knocked on the door to Ellie's and Devon's apartments for the second time that day. The NSA detail would be there any minute, and he had to not be visible when they arrived. Alex bought him some time, but he feared it wouldn't be enough. However, there was no way in hell he was going to leave Ellie, Devon, and Morgan unprotected. Thankfully, Big Mike's escort was ex-Army and a former Los Angeles beat cop who also liked to fish, so the taxpayer-bought fishing trip he was heading towards now would keep him out of sight.

"Is Morgan here?" Jimmy asked when Devon answered the door.

"He arrived five minutes ago," Devon replied. "Did you bring our babysitters with you?"

"They'll be here any minute."

"Jimmy, hey!" Morgan called from inside the apartment as Jimmy entered. "This is so cool, man! If they ever bring the show back, you should have them, like, make this into a script. You know, but change our names and all that."

He chuckled. "Actually, we do that sometimes."

"Whoah, really? Which ones? What about that time in Moscow where Lance and Jill Garrett zip-lined into the Kremlin?"

"That didn't actually happen."

"Duke killing his former commander?"

"Nope."

"Oh, I know. That one where you were trying to get Jen Burton to go on vacation and you jumped off that roof to escape the bad guys?"

"Actually, that one really did happen. But Bryce jumped off of the roof, not me."

"Oooh, how about that season finale with you disabling the bomb in the Freedom Tower and you fell down the elevator shaft."

"Yup."

"Really?!"

"Of course not! If I fell down an elevator shaft 90 floors, would I be talking to you right now?"

"Yeah. Sorry, dude. It's just, do you even know how cool you and everybody look doing that show? And then to find out you're really like that! It's so epic!"

"Believe me, Morgan. I'm not really that cool in real life. I just do my job and hope I did it correctly. To be honest, we've never encountered anything like the last eight months in our lives. We tried to survive as best as we could."

"Clearly you were successful," Ellie said, walking into the living room area.

Jimmy nodded softly. "We couldn't have done it without Chuck. And Chuck couldn't have done it without all of you. It's pretty obvious why Chuck is the way he is."

Ellie smiled at that. "We'd do anything for each other."

There was a knock at the door. "Go ahead and answer it," Jimmy said quickly. "I can't be seen by the NSA. I'll explain later."

Jimmy quickly ducked down the hallway. Devon opened the door.

"Dr. Woodcomb, I'm Agent Kieran Grove, NSA. We're here to take you to orientation for your protective detail. Are the other Dr. Woodcomb and Mr. Grimes ready to go?"

Devon looked back at Ellie and Morgan. "We're ready."

"This way, please."

Agent Grove started to walk through the courtyard, followed by Ellie, Devon, and Morgan, who glanced around. His eyes then widened. His head started darting back and forth.

"Hey, Bill!" Morgan shouted in the opposite direction from the way they were walking. "Bill Clay! Is that you? How long has it been, Bill Clay?"

Ellie and Devon turned around. "Morgan, who are you yelling at?" Ellie asked seeing no one. "Who is Bill Clay?"

In Chuck's bedroom, Jimmy heard Morgan shouting. _Bill Clay?_ he thought. Suddenly his mouth dropped open in shock. He leaped out of the window and ran to the courtyard. He came up behind Agent Grove and put a gun to his neck.

"Don't move," he hissed. He quickly pulled Grove's weapon from its holster.

"What the hell is going on?!" Ellie yelled in total shock.

Jimmy fished Grove's wallet out of his pocket, tossing it to Devon. "Check the driver's license," he told him.

Devon looked and his expression turned more furious then when Morgan sabotaged his first wedding ceremony. "His real name is Arthur Knox."

"Hans Gruber did the same thing in _Die Hard_. Nice work tipping me off, Morgan."

"Yeah, you should really get to know your neighbors better, dude," Morgan said to Ellie and Devon in a panic. "He got the name off the mailboxes."

Jimmy looked to his right. Knox's partner aimed his gun. "GET DOWN!"

He pushed Knox away and dove for Ellie, Devon, and Morgan, the shot missing them by inches. Knox got up and tried to land a punch at Jimmy, who went after him with a spinning kick, knocking him back. He pulled out his guns and fired at the other agent, who ducked out of the way.

Jimmy quickly pulled up Ellie, Devon, and Morgan, handing him his car keys. "Get out of here, now!"

The three took off out the back of the apartment complex as Knox sent a kick at Jimmy's face, knocking him back. He dropped his guns as he fell into the wall. Knox quickly kicked the guns away as he threw a pair of roundhouses at Jimmy, who was becoming more dazed. Knox's partner ran up and sent a hard shot to Jimmy's sternum, making him double-over and lose his breath. They continued to pound on him, finally getting him under control. They dragged him towards the street.

Ellie, Devon, and Morgan got to Jimmy's car and got inside.

"Oh, God," Ellie said in a rush. "Where's Jimmy?"

"I don't know," Morgan said. "But we have to help him."

"How?" Devon demanded.

"I don't know. Maybe there's a weapon in the car, or…"

Morgan opened the glove box, and a panel with a series of buttons slid downward into view.

"Whoah," Devon replied. "What do those do?"

Morgan quickly searched the rest of the glove box and the front of the car. "I don't know. There's no instruction manual, no little cards that say what they are."

"They have Jimmy!" Ellie cried, pointing out the back window.

Devon and Morgan turned to see the two agents dragging Jimmy to their car, who was trying to break free.

"We have to do something!" Ellie was in a full panic.

"Like what?" Morgan said in equal panic. "They have guns, and what do we have?"

"Try one of those buttons," Devon said

"Which one?"

"Pick one!"

Morgan hit one of the buttons, and flames shot out of the grill.

"Try another one!" Devon shouted.

Morgan hit another button on the panel. Outside, Jimmy saw the tail lights of the car drop down.

"Fuck!" he screamed and dropped to the ground. A pair of machine guns protruded out and opened fire, hitting the two agents and decimating their car.

Ellie, Devon, and Morgan were catatonic, to put it mildly. "Shut it…shut it…" Ellie stammered, not even believing that just happened.

Morgan put a shaky finger on the button he pressed. The guns stopped firing, and Jimmy slowly stood, staggering to the driver's seat of the car. He opened the door with Morgan's help and slumped into the driver's seat.

"You…you really have a car like this?" Morgan asked anxiously.

"It's Casey's," Jimmy replied tiredly. "He works on it on weekends." He shook his head. "Why can't he just get laid like everyone else?"

"What do we do now?" Devon asked. "How did they even know about the protective detail?"

"Fulcrum had agents inside the government; the Ring must have even more...and higher up." He started the car and drove from the apartment complex. "We have to find a safe place for you three. Off the grid, some place only the team and I ever knew about."

"No," Ellie replied, finally getting her bearings. "We've been attacked twice in the last twenty-four hours, and now we can't even trust our own government to protect us? You know where the safest place in the world is? It's right next to you! We are not leaving your side!"

Jimmy quietly groaned. He was barely keeping himself together as it was from all of these attacks, but this situation was getting worse by the minute. And worst of all, Ellie was right. Nobody in the government could be trusted right now. He only had four people he could trust, and he didn't know where they were.

But now he had a fifth. And he knew exactly where she was. He headed for his hotel.

He walked into his room with Ellie, Devon, and Morgan following close behind. Alex was waiting for him.

"What's going on?" Alex asked, alarmed by the look on Jimmy's face and seeing Chuck's family with him.

"Ellie, Devon, Morgan, this is Alex Forrest," Jimmy explained. "She's a CIA agent. And until I find the others, she's the only one in the government I can trust."

"How do you know?" Ellie asked.

"Because she stopped the government from putting me under arrest earlier today. That's why I ducked out when that NSA agent showed up. We falsified the reports what happened the night of your reception so we could get Chuck out of the government, but they apparently found out. As far as the government is concerned. I'm a rogue agent. All of us are, including Alex. She is going to keep an eye on you and you are to listen to every last thing she says. She'll keep you safe."

Jimmy pulled out his smartphone and called Carina. He knew she was in London, and he hoped the word hadn't gotten there yet that the team was to be arrested.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Carina demanded when she answered the phone.

"It's a long story," Jimmy said in aggravation of a third person chewing him out in the last eight hours alone. "Beckman put out an order to capture us. Have you heard from the others?"

"Not so far. But that's only the half of it, Jimmy. Ilsa Trinchina is in trouble somewhere in the Middle East, and Cole and I think Casey might have gone to retrieve her."

"What about Chuck and Sarah?"

"Nothing in the last few days. But Sky News had spotted them in Stockholm and then Paris. Apparently they're not done with the spy business just yet."

Jimmy hung his head. He had another ass-chewing coming from Ellie on that one. "OK, we're coming to London."

"We? What do you mean we?"

"The Ring attacked out here in L.A. They took two shots at Ellie, Devon, and Morgan. They attacked at the Buy More and then again at their apartment. I was almost arrested, but Alex Forrest got me out of it."

"Why is Alex Forrest with you?" Carina asked in confusion.

"That's…an even longer story. But we're all we've got right now. We'll be in London within the next eighteen hours."

Jimmy paused and looked at Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and Alex. Any last visages of self-doubt and self-hatred he had were completely gone. Determination had taken over.

"We're putting the band back together."

Devon grinned. "Awesome."


	30. True Confessions

_Hey everybody. Just adding the latest chapter to this story. I'm trying to hammer out a good direction for this to go, and I originally thought I was going to have the big Casey rescue in this chapter. But then I started thinking about all of the characters being together and how they'd be reacting right now to being on their own with both the government and The Ring after them. This chapter is heavy on dialogue and light on action, but that will definitely be reversing itself for the next chapter. I also make a few callbacks to things I did earlier in this story and a few running gags I had in prior stories. One of those I've been told was one of the funniest things people had seen me write in prior Chuck stories, so I wanted to make a little wink to that._

 _Again a quick thank-you to Marc Vun Kannon for letting me bounce a few ideas off of his head, particularly how the last week in the story has gone for some of the characters. If you have any input you want to suggest for the story, please let me know. And of course, NBC and Fake Empire Productions...you know the drill._

 _Enjoy and please leave reviews. Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **MI-6 Headquarters – London, UK  
May 18, 2016  
10:45 PM BST**_

"I am going to break his goddamn neck!"

To say Carina was upset was being kind. She hadn't heard from Jimmy since Ellie's and Devon's wedding and he hadn't even picked up his phone in over a week. With Casey somewhere in the Middle East and Chuck and Sarah still unaccounted for, she was under enough stress already and didn't need Jimmy to be M.I.A. for almost a month.

"I…take it you're unhappy?" Cole said with a raised eyebrow. Behind Cole, Grace Hawkinson and Amir Nejem tried to keep a straight face…emphasis on tried.

"He's on his way to London and he's bringing the whole damn Brady Bunch with him! Apparently Chuck's sister and brother-in-law were attacked twice in L.A. And how he's with Alex Forrest, I have no idea. Oh, and by the by, the CIA wants all of us placed under arrest for falsifying the reports on what happened that night in the Intersect room. I'll just bet they told your bosses to cart my ass back to D.C."

"Lovely. I was just thinking this didn't have enough complications."

"Uh, be careful what you wish for, Cole," Grace said nervously.

"What?" Cole turned to see a half-dozen armed guards heading down the stairwell. "Bollocks. Amir, do you have the keys to the safehouse?"

"Always," Amir replied. "Grace, can you buy us some time?"

"No problem. I'll send them to your actual flat," she answered. "I'll tell them Cole and Carina wanted some alone time."

"We owe you, Hawk," Cole said in appreciation.

Grace rolled her eyes. "I'll add it to the list."

Cole kissed her on the cheek and took off with Carina and Amir in the other direction to the tunnel that would lead to the Underground. They caught a train to a flat just outside of the city that only a few agents…and definitely not MI-6…knew about.

Carina, Cole, and Amir entered the small flat. Carina and Cole promptly collapsed on the couch while Amir produced a bottle of whiskey and handed them shot glasses.

"Have to love this guy," Cole said with a smile as he filled the shot glasses. "There may be better spies in our business but none who are better prepared." He tipped his shot glass at Amir and took a drink. Carina smiled and followed suit.

"I think I need to be caught up on this," Amir said, taking a seat in the recliner opposite of the couch. "Who is Chuck? Is he the one who was dating your friend, Sarah?"

"Chuck Bartowski was the asset the team and I had been guarding for the last eight months," Carina explained. "We got him a job on the show and pretended he was dating Sarah so he could work undercover with us. We were a good team before, but with Chuck helping us, we were unstoppable. But we also knew Sarah was falling for him, and the rest of us…Case, Jimmy, and me…really wanted the two of them to be together. Unfortunately, the only way for that to happen was to get him out the spy world. And we almost pulled it off."

"I sure as hell wouldn't want him rescuing me from some splinter group, but you find out after three seconds why these people wanted to protect him so badly," Cole said in agreement.

"What did you mean earlier by the 'Intersect room'?" Amir asked.

"Put simply, the Intersect is a computer program that carried all of our government secrets in it. And you could learn those secrets by being in this room and seeing this series of subliminal images. Chuck became the computer. All of our secrets got locked in his head. And then he downloaded the newest Intersect to save our lives that night from a group of enemy agents. I didn't witness it personally, but from what Sarah and Case told me, it was like watching an episode of our show on fast-forward."

"That's why you falsified the reports? You figured the CIA would never let Chuck leave if they knew what he was now capable of?"

Carina nodded. "And we knew Sarah would commit treason to keep Chuck away. So we tried our best to make it look like we took out the Ring agents and Chuck only provided intel for us. But I guess the agents that were captured broke under interrogation. So now all of us are on General Beckman's shitlist."

"How do we sneak Sarah and Chuck into London?" Cole asked. "Surely they must know by now they have every set of eyes looking for them."

"And what about his family coming here?" Amir added. "Did Jimmy tell them the truth?"

Carina shrugged. "Jimmy said the Ring went after Ellie, Devon, and Morgan twice in L.A. By saving them, he must have let the cat out of the bag." She gave a quiet chuckle. "I met her, Chuck's sister. Tough as nails. She'd make a pretty good agent herself if she wasn't already making a career out of saving lives. She's got the will, I guarantee that. Poor Jimmy probably got read the riot act from her when she learned the truth."

"I guess you were right to be worried about your partner," Cole said. "What he's probably been through in the last few days."

"I was. I was starting to panic thinking you were right, that the team's breakup was harder on him than any of us knew. But now…I don't know. Something's different. On the phone, he didn't sound like he normally does. No shy voice, no self-effacing jokes. He was all-business. Very confident. I have to admit; it turned me on a little."

Carina sat in silence. "I wonder if that explains Alex Forrest," she said after a moment.

"Alex Forrest? Who is he?"

"She…"

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Even more interesting."

"You could say that. Originally, she almost broke up our team but backed off when we saved her life against Fulcrum. Back then, I suspected she was attracted to Jimmy. And now Jimmy said Alex prevented him from being arrested, which means she's in as much trouble now as the rest of us. Why else would she do that unless she had a thing for him?"

Carina gave that a lot of thought, and a big smile drew across her face. "Finally, someone put a dent in that thick skull of his."

"You mean, Alex and Jimmy…" Amir started, a smile coming to him as well.

"Jimmy is one of the best spies I've ever met, but he's beyond pathetic when it comes to romance. I can't tell you how many times I had just thrown myself at him in the early days. But he was too clueless to do anything about it. And this is a guy who gets some very X-rated letters from the ladies. Not to mention a supermodel-hot stalker every now and again."

"I guess the right person came along."

"I guess so. But I never would have expected him to…"

Her smartphone began to ring. Carina looked at it and was confused. "Nobody should know my number, but look at the ID."

Cole quickly checked. "33 3? That's the code for northern France."

Her eyes widened. She hit the answer button. "Sarah? Are you OK?"

"Yes, thankfully," Sarah said with profound relief. "We've had quite an adventure."

"We know. You've made the news a few times."

"And barely got away from arrest from the DGSE. Beckman must have found out about Chuck. Are you safe? What about the others?"

"I'm safe, thanks to Cole and a few of his friends. But things have really gone sideways, Sarah. Ilsa Trinchina is in the Middle East and Casey went to find her because Victor Federov escaped prison."

"Oh, God. He'll pull out all the stops to kill both of them. Where's Jimmy?"

"That's where this bad story gets much worse. Nobody had heard from him since the wedding, and he called only an hour ago saying he's bringing Ellie, Devon, and Morgan with him to London. The Ring tried to take them twice in L.A. but Jimmy stopped them."

"Are they OK?" Sarah asked in a panic.

"They're fine. Although obviously they now know we're agents. And I'm guessing Ellie went ballistic after being attacked twice. That's going to be the longest flight in Jimmy's life."

"That wouldn't surprise me."

"And to make this even more bizarre, Jimmy was almost arrested by Beckman's minions, but Alex Forrest got him out of it. She's coming here, too. Now she's in the hole with the rest of us."

"Forrest saved Jimmy from being arrested?" Sarah let that one sink in. "You don't suppose…"

"What else could it be?" Carina replied with a grin. "She planted her flag on Mount Jimmy."

"Pun intended."

"Right?"

"I'll tell Chuck about what happened with his family. But we need help getting to London."

"Are you close to Lille? Your caller ID had a northern France code."

"We're about an hour from there. After getting away from the DGSE, we walked five miles to the nearest village and stole a truck. We broke into this café and used their phone."

"We'll get you on the first train out to London in the morning."

"OK, I'll email you the passport names and ID numbers we're using."

"See you here tomorrow. Keep safe. This is just getting started."

"Take care, Carina. See you soon."

Carina hung up and turned to Cole. "Cole, do you think Grace can add one more item to the list?"

 _ **Los Angeles International Airport  
May 18, 2016  
4:45 PM PDT**_

Jimmy was very grateful he didn't pack all of his gear after the team was broken up. It remained in that storage locker he rented under a false name. Besides a slew of IDs and credit cards only the team knew about, he stashed the team's passport-making machine, the most up-to-date one any set of agents had. He spent an hour making fake passports for everyone that would fool security both in Los Angeles and London. He also brought the team's set of contact lenses designed to alter the calculations made by facial recognition cameras of the wearer so Ellie, Devon, Morgan, Alex, and he wouldn't be matched up to their real pictures in the computers at Fort Meade or with British Intelligence. As for being recognized as Lance McCall, he'd brush it off with his well-practiced 'I get that a lot' response. Not to mention, they only had thirty minutes to make their flight.

"Morgan, this is your passport," Jimmy said, handing it to him. "You're Jack Traven, born and raised in Encino, CA. You're going to London for training for a large corporation."

"Jack Traven?" Morgan was impressed, to say the least. "I like that. This is going to be so epic!"

"Just try to keep your excitement under 50 miles per hour," Jimmy replied in irritation, the headache he had been sporting since being attacked at the apartment returning in force.

He then turned to Ellie and Devon. "Here are your passports. You're attending a medical conference at Cambridge."

Ellie looked at the names on the passports. "Doctors Barbara and Kenneth Roberts. Barbara and Kenneth…" She stopped in her tracks and glared at Jimmy. "Wait a second. Barbie and Ken? Really?"

"Then don't yell at me every time I save your life," he retorted with a smirk. "Plane tickets," he then said, handing the three their tickets.

"First class?" Devon beamed. "Already liking this."

"This will probably be as luxurious as we get. Once we're in London, we have to keep you three hidden. Alex will guard you while we locate Casey and his girlfriend, Ilsa. After we bring those two back, we'll try to straighten out this mess."

Jimmy checked the time. "We have to get moving. We'll be in London by noon their time tomorrow. Get some rest on the flight."

Everybody quickly made their way to the gate.

~/^\~

"Ugh."

After the safety briefing, which seemed to take a lot longer than it normally did…at least in Jimmy's mind…and a half-dozen 'I get that a lot' phrases thrown around, Jimmy finally collapsed into his first-class seat and started to fall asleep. That was the advantage of a ten-hour flight: plenty of opportunity for rest. And in first class, a sleeping passenger was like a Christmas present to the flight crew, provided they didn't snore loudly.

"Dude, you awake?"

Jimmy's eyes shot open and he glanced to his right, groaning when he saw Morgan there.

"Did you even WAIT for them to turn off the 'fasten seatbelt' sign?" Jimmy grumbled.

"Thanks so much for getting us in first class. They have a bar here. I mean, an actual bar…with a bartender and everything! And the movie selection is awesome! They even have the latest videogames to play!"

"Then go enjoy them," Jimmy replied tiredly through half-lidded eyes.

"But I gotta know. Do you guys travel like this all the time?"

"We have our own jet."

"Does it have a bar, too?"

"No."

"Hot flight attendants?"

"No."

"So, what do you do while you're flying around the world?"

"We study mission briefings, communicate with others regarding upcoming or previous operations, or try to get some rest," Jimmy replied, emphasizing the last one as strongly as he could.

"Oh, man. Have you ever had the plane, like, taken over by some nasty bad guy? You know, then the four of you just kung-fu the guy right out the door or jump out with no parachute to catch them?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Morgan, I know it may not look like it, but I got the crap beat out of me twice in less than a day. And the first thing I have to do once I get you four settled is to fly to the Middle East and find John Casey and his girlfriend. I really need some rest right now."

"Yeah, oh yeah, buddy. You're right. I'm so sorry. I'm just so out of my mind about all of this. How you…"

"Hey guys," Devon walked up to Morgan and Jimmy.

Jimmy growled quietly. "Why the hell did I have to duck?" he said to himself in exasperation. "This would be over and they'd be someone else's problem."

"Anybody need coffee?" Devon asked, holding up two coffee cups.

"I don't need the caffeine, and Morgan REALLY doesn't need the caffeine."

"Sorry, Jimmy. I was just wondering, is there something going on between you and Alex? You two had kind of a…vibe going."

"Yeah, are you two really going out like you said you were at Ted Roark's mansion?" Morgan added. "And where is he?"

"That's a long story…and an even longer story," Jimmy replied, practically nodding off at this point.

"Dude, you sure know how to pick them, though. She is smokin' hot!"

"She looks like someone familiar," Devon said. "I can't think of it. Morgan, who does she remind you of?"

"She looks a lot like Tricia Helfer to me. You know, from _Battlestar Galactica_?"

Devon furrowed his brow. "Nah, I don't think she looks like Tricia Helfer."

"Sure she does. She's crazy hot, she's got the height, blonde hair, ocean eyes, that rockin' body, she totally looks like Tricia Helfer."

"Jimmy, what do you…"

They turned to see Jimmy completely knocked out. Both Morgan and Devon turned sheepish.

"We…probably should let him sleep, right?" Morgan eked out.

"Good idea," Devon replied.

They slowly made their way back to their seats.

~/^\~

"How does the team know you, Agent Forrest?"

Ellie and Alex sat several seats ahead of where Morgan and Devon were pestering Jimmy. Ellie still had a number of questions, and she hoped Agent Forrest would know the answers.

"Alex is fine," she replied, refilling their wine glasses from the bottle they had. "I met the team a couple of months ago. I've been an agent for thirteen years. For the last five years, my primary job was to assess other agents' job performance."

"Does that mean you were sent to assess Sarah and the others?"

Alex nodded. "I was sent by our boss, General Beckman, to assess Sarah's relationship with Chuck. I recommended she be reassigned."

"You did?" Ellie asked, her voice losing its pleasantness.

"I am forced to admit I spent a lot of my career going by the book and not tolerating any agent who maintained any sort of non-professional relationship with an asset. And the way those two were…at that time, I felt it endangered the team. But as I eventually discovered, that wasn't the case."

Alex took a sip of her wine and looked at the floor. "This is difficult for me to tell you, but you deserve to know the truth."

"What are you talking about?"

Alex steeled herself. "Chuck had been taken hostage. Fulcrum…I think Jimmy explained to you who they were…wanted some data from us in exchange for Chuck. But then they decided they were going to keep him anyway. And in a situation like that with a highly-valuable asset like Chuck, regulations are to…shoot the hostage…rather than let them be captured."

Ellie stared at Alex in hard silence. Eventually, Alex gave a small nod. "There are a lot of things I've regretted having done in my career since working with Sarah and the team, and that is the biggest one of all. Trust was a major problem for me for a long time. But I finally got wise and began to trust that Sarah knew what she was doing in leading her team and relating to Chuck. In fact, it ended up saving my life twice."

"How in the world could Jimmy trust you after what you almost did?" Ellie retorted, her expression unyielding.

Alex exhaled slowly. "I've been asking myself that same question every day since. He came up with the way to rescue Chuck from Fulcrum by creating a diversion. And then he rescued me when I was taken hostage by them. At that point, I withdrew my assessment and requested a return to field work. I was captured on my first mission, and sure enough, he was the one to bail me out."

"He seems to make a habit out of that," Ellie replied in concession.

"That he…"

Alex stopped, a cold shiver going through her as she recounted what had happened since being captured by Salazar. It scared her to think what would have transpired had Jimmy been successful in killing himself. Sarah's team would never live it down, Chuck's family would be in the hands of The Ring, and she herself would be dead right now.

"What is it?" Ellie prompted.

"Nothing," Alex replied, not wanting to reveal what Jimmy tried to do a week ago. She stared ahead. "How does Jimmy trust me? I don't know," she said softly. "He's that good of a person. I've never met anyone like him since…"

Ellie watched Alex wipe away a stray tear. "What aren't you telling me?" she asked.

"It's about…something in my past. Not important." Alex turned to Ellie. "You have every right to hate me, and I'll never be able to apologize enough for my actions. But I will do whatever it takes to keep all of you safe and help get Chuck and Sarah out of the spy life for good. That's what they want, and they deserve to have it. I got a second chance to do a lot of things thanks to Sarah and her team, especially Jimmy. And I will never take that for granted, nor will I make the mistakes I made before. That much I do know."

Ellie got up slowly and started to walk down the aisle. She then turned back to see Alex staring out of the window and wiping away a few more tears. Either this was the best act she had ever seen…and she had to consider that given how everyone had basically lied to her over the past eight months…or Alex was telling the truth about being a new person.

She sat in the seat next to Jimmy's and waited for him to return from the lavatory. A moment later, he walked up the aisle back to his seat.

"Aaah, hell," he groaned quietly at seeing her as he sat down. "I knew should have just waited until we got to London."

Ellie checked the time. "London's still nine hours away, you know," she said with a raised eyebrow. "As a doctor, I can assure you that would not be a healthy thing to do."

"What the hell, I already have a job that isn't good for my health."

Ellie shook her head and smiled. "It's been good for our health so far."

Jimmy exhaled in frustration. "It…it never should have come to this. The three of you don't deserve this, and Chuck sure as hell didn't deserve to go through all this. We wanted him out of the spy world, believe me."

"I believe you, Jimmy. I'm not mad about that anymore. It's just…being kept in the dark about all of this…"

"We did what we could to keep you safe. To keep all of you safe. The less you knew, the safer you'd be. Of course, that's academic now. But London is a good place to hide out. Nobody knows you'll be there. Just keep a low profile and listen to whatever Alex tells you. She's a damn good agent. She'll keep you protected and we'll be back before you know it."

Jimmy couldn't miss the different emotions going across Ellie's face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Alex told me about your mission together. What she…what she almost did to Chuck."

Jimmy froze at that. "She says she's a different person now, that she's not the same hard-nosed agent she was back then," Ellie continued. "And I want to believe it, especially after being honest with me like that. But…I just can't get past this. How can you work with her when you had to stop her from killing Chuck?"

Jimmy looked at the ground. "Because I've been there myself." Ellie looked on with piqued curiosity. "Had this been nine years ago, I might have done the same thing she did. I was a hard-assed SOB when I first started. A lot of agents are. There's always something the drives us, something from our past that makes us into the people we are today. We've all have them. Sarah's past was bad; Carina's was really bad. Casey's father was killed in in the line of duty. It was the failed attempt to rescue hostages from Iran back in 1980. How'd you like to be a kid finding out that not only was your father killed in action but the entire country was basically spitting on his grave? As for Alex…she's been through a lot since we first met two months ago."

"Like what?"

"She was captured by a criminal group and was almost tortured and killed."

"She told me about that. How you rescued her."

"But did she also tell you her father died five days ago?"

That stopped Ellie in her tracks. "No. She didn't say a thing."

"She's been through hell, too. She lost her mother to breast cancer ten years ago and the CIA refused to bring her home. And then what happened in D.C…"

"What do you mean?"

"She was engaged once, but she didn't get to marry her Devon."

"What happened?"

Jimmy shivered. "He was killed in the Pentagon on 9/11."

Ellie sat back in her seat. "Oh, my God."

"I mean, think of how hard that day was for all of us. And she lost her entire future, all of her plans destroyed by the bastards who flew the plane into the building. But the CIA, they live for people who have lost everything. They tend to make the most ruthless agents. Like I said, I ought to know, since I used to be one myself."

"So, what happened to you?"

"Sarah happened. I was put on her team to replace Bryce and she looked after me. She straightened my ass out. I'd probably be dead right now instead of a top-level agent if not for her. The way she leads us…and helps us…we'd move heaven and earth for her. And that sure as hell includes keeping Chuck and her together."

Ellie nodded. "And what Sarah did for you, you just did for Alex."

"I guess so. I told her to find something in life that could make her happy. I just didn't expect that something to be me."

"Do you like her?"

Jimmy hemmed and hawed at that. "I must. I mean, I go and rescue her, track her down at her father's funeral, and then last night…I don't know. Maybe she's right. Maybe I'm not as screwed up as I think I am."

Ellie gave him a weird look. "Uh, you do know you're considered one of the hottest men in Hollywood, and as I have discovered twice, you're even more brave and talented than Lance McCall. I think I would have to agree with Alex. It sounds like she made you see what the rest of us see in you."

"I guess. Although I have to admit I'm nowhere near as cool or funny as Lance McCall. That's the writers making him cool and funny."

"Now that I do believe."

"Gee, thanks," Jimmy retorted, making a face at her.

"I knew something was wrong at that _Stand Up To Cancer_ show last year. Katy Perry was hitting on you the whole time you two were on-stage and you didn't notice?"

"Oh, she was not. Now I know you're full of it."

"Who me? Demi Moore's uber-hot younger sister?"

Jimmy's eyes widened. "How did you…"

"Sarah and I talked at my rehearsal dinner. She told me a few stories."

"Aaah, hell," Jimmy growled in frustration. "I…that was…"

Ellie grinned. "One of the guys on my 'freebie' list thinks I'm 'uber-hot'? I think that qualifies as a good day."

Jimmy gave her a shy smile. She got up and kissed Jimmy on his cheek. "Thank you again for what you've done for my family."

He exhaled and settled back into his seat to get some rest.

 _ **St. Pancras Station – London, UK  
May 19, 2016  
9:00 AM BST**_

Chuck and Sarah exited the Eurorail and headed towards the station. Both of them kept a close watch as they walked through the extremely crowded terminal. So far, people were just walking quickly to catch trains or exit the station to catch ground transportation.

"We can't stay out here long," Chuck whispered. "Isn't London the surveillance camera capital of the world?"

Sarah shook her head. "With this large crowd, it'll be tougher to pick us out. By the time the facial recognition software comes back, we'll be long gone. The real problem is having the crowd figure out who we are."

Chuck paused for a second. "Right, right. Wow, it really does suck being famous."

Sarah took his hand. "But you've done a wonderful job of cushioning the blow."

Chuck gave her a kiss on the cheek and spotted what they were looking for. "Up ahead," he said.

They walked into a business center and Sarah got on the computer while Chuck kept watch. She went online to the team's private email program and found the message from Carina.

"H6," she said as she quickly went offline and made sure her browsing history was erased.

"That's all it said?" Chuck asked. "What is H6?"

"Handoff #6. The team has a series of different methods for passing files or other items." She took Chuck's hand and exited the business center. "Over there," she said, finding their target.

They walked into a duty-free store and went to the liquor aisle. Behind a display for Cristal champagne, they found a small box. They exited the store and walked to the parking lot. Sarah opened the small box and found a key fob for a car. Chuck looked to his right and smiled.

"That looks like your style," he said with a grin, pointing to a Porsche. Sarah pressed a button on the key fob and the doors unlocked. She got in the driver's seat and Chuck got in the passenger's seat.

"What else is in here?" Sarah asked, handing Chuck the small box. He shook the contents out and found a plastic card. He held it up.

"Our mission, should we choose to accept it?" he asked with a playful lilt.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "It's a good thing you're so adorable," she grumbled as she took the card and inserted it into the slot on the dashboard. A set of navigation instructions downloaded to the screen. Sarah started the car and drove out of the lot, heading in the direction the navigation told her.

Thirty minutes later, they pulled up to a nondescript house just outside of London. They exited the car and went to the door. Sarah knocked on it.

"OK, a little lesson, Sarah," Carina said when she answered the door. "If you want to stop being a spy, you have to actually stop spying."

"Very funny," Sarah retorted, making a face at her. Both of them broke into wide grins as they hugged each other.

"Glad you're safe," Carina said.

"You, too," Sarah replied.

"And Chuck? You got the moves like Jagger?" Carina teased as she gave him a hug.

"Oh, God," Chuck said in embarrassment. "Does everyone in the world know about Stockholm?"

"Only the people who like you. Which is…actually, that is everyone."

"And we're running out of places to hide."

"Well, you'll be safe here for the moment," Cole said, coming up behind Carina. He gestured for Chuck and Sarah to enter, which they did.

"And we have you to thank for that," Sarah said with a smile.

"Actually, you have a very nice computer operator at MI-6 to thank…and she gave me a list you can fulfill later." Cole then gestured behind him where Amir was standing. "And this is my flatmate, Amir Nejem. He's also with MI-6."

"Good to meet you," Chuck said, shaking Amir's hand.

"Chuck Bartowski," Amir replied. "You've had quite a year, it seems."

Chuck nodded in agreement. "It has felt like the longest, scariest roller coaster ride I've ever been on in my life." He then took Sarah's hand. "But it's been so worth it."

"If you two are even half as in love in life as you look on the tele, I'd say you are very lucky."

"No question," Chuck replied with a smile, pulling Sarah closer to him.

"When will Jimmy be here with everybody?" Sarah asked.

"A few hours," Carina replied and turned to Chuck. "Cole can get his hands on some of the best body armor the British government possesses. You might need it for when Ellie arrives."

"What…what am I going to tell her about all of this?" Chuck asked with not a little fear.

"Just be honest with her, Chuck," Sarah replied, taking his hands. "She knows the big details. Answer any questions she may have. What you've done for her, for all of us…you've been spectacular. She'll see that, too."

Chuck gave her a smile, which lit up her face even more. He took her face in his hands and gave her a gentle kiss. "I couldn't have done it without you."

Everybody went inside to have something to eat and update each other on what was happening.

 _ **Costons Lane – Greenford, UK  
May 19, 2016  
1:00 PM BST**_

The car pulled up to the house. Ellie, Devon, Morgan, Jimmy, and Alex exited the vehicle understandably exhausted after their trip almost halfway around the world. Jimmy began to unpack the items he managed to sneak on the flight, but Ellie chose not to wait. She ran to the front door and began to pound on it. Chuck answered right away.

"Hi, sis!" Chuck said, attempting to put a big grin on his face. "How was your flight?"

"Chuck!" she shouted, grabbing him and hugging him tightly. "Thank God you're OK. What the hell have you done? You lied to me for eight months?!"

Chuck exhaled slowly. "It was for…"

"I don't want to hear 'it was for my protection' for the hundredth time! I don't care if it would have started World War III! You should have told me!"

She quietly growled and took a minute to steady herself. "You know, it's not important. You're safe, and you're with Sarah. That's all I really wanted. I wanted you to be happy and you are."

"I am," Chuck said, a smile breaking across his face. "Despite everything that happened, this was a dream come true."

"I'm so glad," Ellie replied, pulling Chuck in for another hug. She then turned to Sarah and hugged her. "And thank you so much for keeping him safe."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Breathing…oxygen…" she rasped.

"Yeah, I should have told you," Chuck said with a bit of sheepishness about Ellie's iron grip on Sarah. "Both my dad and I are convinced Ellie used to wrestle bears in a previous life."

"Sorry, sorry," Ellie said, letting Sarah go. "It's just…I always wanted Chuck to find the perfect girl and he found you. I don't think it's remotely possible to do better than you."

"Thanks," Sarah demurred. "Honestly, I'm the lucky one to have found him."

Devon, Morgan, Jimmy, and Alex joined everyone inside. "Chuck, good to see you, buddy," Morgan said as he came up to Chuck and gave him a hug.

"Hey, Morgan," Chuck said. "I found out about Anna. I'm so sorry. You OK, man?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm OK. I mean, it sucked for a while, I can't deny it. Failing at chef school, Anna cheating on me, having to come back to the Buy More and beg Emmett for my job back. But then, we get attacked and what Jimmy did…it was like being part of the show! Then I find out you're this super-cool spy! And I just got to fly to London first class! It's so epic!"

"Easy, buddy. This isn't nearly as fun as you think. I mean, think about it. The government is after you, the bad guys are after you. Are you sure you really want that?"

"OK, well no, you're right. But look at the people you hang out with. I mean, they do this spy stuff for real and they're awesome at it! You should have seen Jimmy do this dive over the DVD rack to take out one of the enemy agents with two guns. I even helped take care of the bad guys the one time!"

Chuck stared at him in total disbelief. He turned to Jimmy, who could only shrug. "He's not lying. He tipped me off to them on one of the attacks and found the right weapon in Casey's car to save my ass."

Chuck turned back to Morgan with a huge grin. "Nicely done, my friend!" he exclaimed, giving Morgan a high-five.

"I…helped, too," Jimmy whined. Chuck and Morgan both glared at him. "I'm just messin' with you," he then said with a grin.

Sarah went over to Alex. "Jimmy said you stopped Beckman's team from arresting him," she said in a guarded fashion.

Alex nodded. "None of you deserved that. You took down Fulcrum and she wants to hang you for it? That's wrong, and I realize that now."

"But how did you even find Jimmy?"

"He found me. I was captured by a criminal group on my first field assignment and he rescued me. And then…my father died and he was there to comfort me. He had no reason to do any of that but he did it anyway. I can't thank him enough for what he did for me."

"It sounds like you tried," Sarah retorted with a little bit of snark behind it.

Alex glared at her. "I deserved that, given how we started. But that person…the one who tried to have you reassigned…that person is gone. They're never coming back. I promised Chuck's sister I'd keep her family safe and I would get Chuck and you out of the spy business for good. And I'm making that same promise to you. Know that much, Agent Walker."

"I'm not questioning that. But Jimmy is one of my best friends. I don't want to see him getting hurt."

Alex's hardened posture abated. "The man saved my life twice and was there when I really needed a friend at my father's burial. And this was after his own world had fallen apart thanks to what Beckman did. There's no way in hell I'd ever do anything to hurt him."

Sarah looked at her for a moment. She still had her doubts about Alex, but certainly the evidence pointed to a new and vastly-improved Alex Forrest. And even if this was two months ago, Alex never struck her as the type to renege on a promise.

"Take good care of him for me," she said quietly.

"That I will," Alex replied.

"Carina, is that your boyfriend coming up the walkway?" Devon asked.

Carina looked out the window. "That's Cole. The other guy is Amir Nejem. They both work for MI-6. Amir was going to check with some of his contacts to see if they knew anything about Casey and Ilsa."

She exhaled slowly. "Judging by the looks on their faces, I'd say the news is not good."

Cole and Amir entered the house. Carina gave Cole a quick kiss. "Guys, this is Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and Alex," she said, pointing to each of them.

"Nice to meet all of you," Cole said quickly. "I wish I could come bearing good tidings, but I can't."

"What did you find out?"

"I talked with one of my contacts who is involved with a group in Iran," Amir said solemnly. "They captured Ilsa and John. And they had help."

Everyone looked on in shock. "Our strategy to give Ilsa a target worked," Amir continued. "She staked herself out in Lankaran to sneak over the border into Iran to take out a munitions depot. My contact said a Russian criminal tipped them off to where she would be. I think we can assume that was Victor Federov."

"Amir's contact thinks they're still being kept there," Cole added. "There's an 'exporting manager' who owns a very lavish villa outside of town."

"Exporting manager?" Sarah asked. "As in gunrunner?"

"Among the many other services he provides for terror cells operating in that part of the world."

"We'd have a hard time breaking them out ourselves if they're that well-financed. There's no way they'd give either of them up. I mean, how many people has Case pissed off in over twenty years of working for the government?"

Chuck stared ahead for a moment. He then smiled. "That's your in. That's how you get to Casey and Ilsa."

"What do you mean?" Cole asked.

"Amir's contacts get him a meeting with the people holding them and tells that person there's a high-ranking criminal organization or another group that is willing to pay a lot of money to execute Casey themselves. Federov thinks he can get his revenge and get rich at the same time. We tag whomever Amir meets with and hopefully they lead us to where they're holding Casey and Ilsa."

"That's a very high-risk play, Chuck," Jimmy replied.

"I'll happily defer to anyone with a better idea."

Sarah looked around the room but got nothing but silent looks in return. "Let's try it," she finally said. "Cole, can you be the person who makes the offer?"

"I thought you'd never ask," he replied. "Besides, none of you can go in there. They'd recognize you in a second."

"Alex, you'll keep everyone safe here?"

"No problem," Alex replied. "I'll get supplies for us with the ID and credit cards Jimmy gave me. Hopefully Beckman hasn't put the word out yet to capture me yet."

"Let's get packing," Chuck said, which made Ellie look at him in shock.

"Chuck, let me talk to you for a minute," she said.

The two went to one of the bedrooms away from everyone. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"They need me, El," Chuck replied.

"Are you out of your mind? You're not trained for this! You can't be going to the Middle East to rescue someone!"

"I have to. John has put his life on the line for me over and over again. All of them have. I'm still amazed at what they can do. But they trust me to help them. Ellie, I can't propose an idea and send them off into harm's way like that. I have to be there. I owe it to Case, to Carina, to Jimmy, and I especially owe it to Sarah. None of this would have happened if it wasn't for her.

"The things I can do now with this new Intersect…I can do even more than I had before. And they can keep me safe. I think you have to admit that, given what happened to you since yesterday."

Ellie nodded. "You do have a good point. They are the best." She hugged him tightly. "But come back alive or I'm going to kill you."

"I promise, El," Chuck said with a laugh.

 _ **Lankaran, Azerbaijan  
May 20, 2016  
2:00 PM AZT**_

Cole and Amir walked into the café and sat down at one of the tables. They kept their back to the counter, although Amir took the occasional look back to make sure nobody would try to shoot them from behind. Two hundred yards away, Sarah and Carina sat on a hill that overlooked the square where the café was located. Sarah loaded the specialized rifle Jimmy made for her containing the fingernail-sized GPS chip they would plant on the man with whom Cole and Amir would meet. Carina had a high-powered rifle with a sniper scope at the ready just in case it was needed. In a store next to the café, Chuck and Jimmy hid with a pair of laptops. Jimmy would override the network the café was on so Cole and Amir could show the bank account where the 10 million pounds stood, simulated from an actual bank if Federov or any of Casey's and Ilsa's captors wanted to verify it. Chuck readied the tracing software needed to follow the contact on his laptop.

"That should be him," Amir whispered to the team as he saw a man walk into the café. The man went to the counter and ordered the drink Amir told him to order to identify himself. He then sat down opposite Cole and Amir.

"Sayed, this is Mr. Jason Geils," Amir said, introducing him to Cole. "He represents the Tribeca Road syndicate in London. He's the man I told you about."

"I understand you have a good friend of ours in your charge," Cole said. "And while I'm sure you'd get your jollies executing him, my bosses would like to make an offer for him."

"What do you mean?" Sayed asked.

"Inside the man's head are the account numbers and passcodes for a series of bank accounts where he hid over 100 million pounds of our organization's money. We would like to extract that information from him before he shuffles off the mortal coil. And we are willing to give you a percentage. You can keep the girl for all we care."

"We can't do that. He is quite valuable to us as well."

"Are you aware of who he is?" Sayed didn't have an answer. "He is a spy. But he works in the field. The American government isn't stupid; they don't tell their agents every last secret. There will not be anything you can get from him your people don't already know. So, what do you get for your efforts? A few weapons and a spy they'd just as soon kill as look at him."

"And what will you offer for him?"

"Ten million pounds. And if he has any information that is of use to your organization, our group will be willing to share it. But WE must take him. He has intimate details of our group that we do not want divulged to outsiders. No disrespect intended."

Amir rubbed his beard, which was the signal for Sarah to fire. She aimed at Sayed's jacket and fired. The GPS projectile caught the bottom of his coat. Chuck checked his laptop and verified the projectile hit its mark. "Good to go," he whispered into everyone's earpiece.

"Can I see this money?" Sayed asked.

Cole took out his smartphone and held it up for Sayed to study.

"Type the name of the bank and show me the account where the money is."

Cole took the phone and began typing. At least, that's how it looked to Sayed. Next door, Jimmy uploaded the web page to Cole's smartphone. Cole turned the smartphone back to Sayed, showing him the bank, the account number, and the ten million pounds sitting in it.

"I'll have to talk to my people about this," Sayed said.

"Do not take long," Cole said, sliding an envelope to Sayed. "Five thousand manat. Think of it as a good-faith payment. Whether you tell your bosses about it is up to you."

Sayed got up and nodded in approval. He quickly left the café.

"Now we get to see how well that worked," Sarah said.

~/^\~

Twenty-five miles away, Sayed pulled up to a luxurious villa where his boss was waiting for him.

"How did it go?" his boss, Ghazi, asked.

"It's just like what the man predicted," Sayed replied. "They made an offer for Agent Casey. They tried to make it look like they were willing to pay a lot of money to kill him themselves."

The two walked into the house where another man took a scanner and ran it over Sayed. The scanner beeped, and Ghazi knew what that meant.

" _Kalets_!" Ghazi swore. He reached for the spot on Sayed's jacket where the GPS tracker was.

"Wait!" the man with the scanner said. "Remember what I told you? This is exactly what Agent Casey's friends would do. If I remember correctly, the two you met with are members of British Intelligence. We need them to think Sayed went to your hideout."

Victor Federov smiled. "They think they know where Agent Casey and Agent Trinchina are. But imagine how famous you'll be when your organization finds out you were the one to kill Agents Walker, Miller, and Slade."


	31. Hard Chargers

_Just managed to get this chapter in before I had to do some work tonight. Not much in the way of author's notes this time. But this chapter is a definite roller-coaster. And I also took a little piece from "Chuck vs. the Role Models" that I thought didn't work as well in the actual episode and made a joke I had thought of a few stories ago. But please remember, like the show, this story doesn't get a lot of visits from reality. :-D_

 _Please review if you haven't had a chance. The one thing I always try to include is a lot of humor and meta-references, and I'm not sure how people are reacting to those. If things don't work for you, feel free to say so. I always explain my line of thinking._

 _NBC/Fake Empire...and so on._

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Lankaran, Azerbaijan  
May 20, 2016  
10:30 PM AZT**_

Konul Aslanov scanned the countryside around his villa with a pair of binoculars and considerable impatience. Waiting for Agent Casey's friends to attempt a rescue was the hard part. But they would; Victor Federov was certain of it. Capturing one American agent, even one with the talents of John Casey, wasn't a big deal. But to take out his friends on that TV show, were also not only actual spies themselves but the best team of agents the American government had, would provide some serious cache in his future endeavors in weapons sales. If he was successful in helping eliminate Agents Miller, Slade, and especially Agent Walker, the money he'd make could get him a mansion that made his current villa look like an outhouse.

Jimmy drove the SUV along the road on the hill overlooking the villa, slowing down just enough to let Chuck and Sarah out of the vehicle before driving off. Sarah would provide sniper support on the hill while running the show. She would also assist Chuck in setting up video surveillance so the rest of the team knew the best approach to the villa. Carina, Cole, and Amir were to infiltrate the villa and find Casey and Ilsa. Once they were freed, it was up to Jimmy to go in hard and get everybody out.

"We're in position one hundred yards west of the villa," Jimmy said. "Light them up for us."

Chuck took a pair of infrared goggles and looked out over the entire area, sweeping slowly back and forth. As the team had hoped, his Intersect kicked in with various geometric equations and angle measurements.

"Ready to program," Chuck said, kneeling down in front of his laptop.

"Are you OK?" Sarah asked him.

"Fine. Just a little headache. I guess I'm still a little new to all of this stress."

"Don't worry, you're doing great," she replied, giving him a little kiss.

Chuck programmed the computer as Sarah loaded the specialized rifle they used to plant the GPS tracker on Sayed. However, this time it would fire a series of darts, each of which contained a wireless HD camera that would link to Chuck's laptop. He finished the calculations and displayed the list to Sarah for location, distance, elevation, and windage. One by one, Sarah loaded a dart into the rifle, made the appropriate adjustments, and fired. Six darts later, they had the entire villa monitored for a 180-degree sweep.

"Six for six," Sarah told the team as she switched to her sniper rifle. "Four guards are patrolling the main entrance," she announced as she looked at Chuck's monitor. "Four more on the upper levels, two at each end."

"Chuck, do the heat sensors work?" Carina asked.

Chuck switched programs on the computer. "They work, but I'm not picking up anything more than the eight guards Sarah mentioned."

"They're not stupid," Cole replied. "They'll keep John and Ilsa as secure as they can and in an inaccessible location."

"Well, we picked the right SUV," Jimmy said. "There's only one road in and out. Bottleneck city. Glad this thing is built like a Sherman tank."

"I'll get in position to take out the guards. Stay here, Chuck," Sarah said. "Keep monitoring their movements. Everybody else, get ready to roll."

Carina, Cole, and Amir exited the vehicle with their weapons as Sarah ran fifty yards further up the hill to get herself in a perfect position to open fire at the guards. Chuck kept close watch on the surveillance cameras as the trio made their way the 100-yard distance to the villa. They pressed themselves up against the west wall.

"Chuck, where are the guards?" Carina whispered.

"Two of them are walking your way," he said. "Five yards…four…three…two…"

The two guards started to make the turn around the corner to the villa…and were met by a boot from Cole. One of them went down as Amir stepped up and smashed the other in the face with his weapon. The first one tried to get up, but Carina put him down for good with a hard punch.

"OK, you're clear to the next alcove," Chuck told them.

Carina, Cole, and Amir moved forward per Chuck's directions. They spotted the two remaining ground guards. Carina and Cole fired tranq darts, sending the two to the ground.

Sarah readied her sniper rifle, keeping a sharp eye out on the four guards on the balconies. One of them would be able to see Carina, Cole, and Amir attempt to go through the side entrance they found in the villa's blueprints. She took aim at that guard.

She then heard the click of a gun behind her. "It's good to see you again, Agent Walker," Victor Federov taunted, aiming a Glock 17 at Sarah. He pushed the barrel against the back of her head as he grabbed her sniper rifle and threw it far away.

He then switched on his radio. "I have Agent Walker. Get the rest," he ordered.

"Everyone, CODE 7!" Sarah shouted, but Federov took his Glock and nailed her in the head, knocking her unconscious.

Throughout the area, the team began to scramble. Chuck quickly hit the reset keys on his laptop and typed in the wrong password in three times in a row. He took off as the laptop destroyed itself. Carina, Cole, and Amir began to run west, but two dozen of Ghazi's men were waiting for them. Jimmy gunned the engine and tore down the road, heading towards them. He kept his foot down on the accelerator as he reached out the window with an MP5K, spraying the area. Everybody dove for cover as Jimmy was able to drive up to the team.

"COME ON!" he shouted.

Amir tried to get up, but he was quickly grabbed by four soldiers and was knocked unconscious by the butt of a rifle. Carina got up and tried to pull Cole with her to the SUV. Jimmy opened the door just as the soldiers pounced on Carina and Cole.

Cole shoved Carina forward, away from the soldiers and into the SUV. "GO, JIMMY!" he screamed.

"NO!" Carina cried, but the soldiers had Cole captured. Jimmy had no choice but to floor it away from the villa.

Chuck ran down the hill and saw the SUV coming up the road ahead of him. Three of Ghazi's men got to him and pointed weapons at him. His Intersect kicked in, and he spun in the air, knocking all three guns out of their hands. He sent a hard kick at the chin of one man, knocking him unconscious. He then went at the man on his left, hooking his arm around the man and spinning through the air to land a kick at the third man. He landed and threw a roundhouse at the man who was on his left to take him out.

He ran down the hill, again wincing in pain, as the SUV got to him. "Jimmy!" he shouted.

Jimmy brought the SUV to a screeching halt, and Chuck jumped into the back. Several of Ghazi's men tried to give chase, opening up with automatic weapons, but the bullet-proof SUV just drove off into the night.

"Oh, God. Oh, my God," Chuck said, completely out of breath. "How did this happen?"

Jimmy shook his head. "They knew we'd make a play for Case and Ilsa. They outsmarted our asses."

"Cole…" Carina said in a shaky voice from the passenger seat.

"Well, if there was any doubt how the guy felt about you, I think he just laid them to rest," Jimmy said solemnly.

"We'll get him back," Chuck said, gripping Carina's shoulders. "We're getting all of them back."

Jimmy exhaled. "How we're getting them back is the big question."

 _ **Kuvanil, Azerbaijan  
May 21, 2016  
12:30 AM AZT**_

Ghazi and Sayed led the handcuffed and gagged Sarah, Cole, and Amir to a cell in the basement. Two of Ghazi's men opened the door and the three were pushed inside. Another figured walked up to the cell as it was relocked and stood in triumph.

"Agent Casey," Victor Federov began. "As you were probably wondering why you weren't already dead, now you have your answer. My new associates appreciate all of the data I have given them on you and your friends."

Federov turned to Ghazi as Casey did a slow burn. "You got what you wanted. Now I leave with Ilsa, Agent Casey, and my money."

"When the ENTIRE team is captured," Ghazi replied in no uncertain terms. "Not a minute before."

"That was not our deal. You wanted the Azure Wind stopped, and I stopped her."

"Then you walk on your own…and you lose your protection. After what you did, how badly do you think their friends want to kill you now? Are you certain you can handle them all by yourself?"

"He's right," Aslanov said, walking up to the group. "I'm already risking enough of my operation as it is. There's over twenty million euros in weaponry here just waiting to be sold, and the last thing I need is for you to be caught and tell MI-6 or the CIA where it is."

Ghazi looked at everyone in the cells. "You'll get your money…and your revenge," he told Federov. But AFTER we get the rest of Agent Walker's team."

Two sentries from the villa entered the basement. "Report," Ghazi ordered.

"The two got away," one man reported. "We can't find them or the one who was pretending to be Agent Walker's boyfriend. But three of our men swear he was able to overpower them. By himself."

" _Ya Khara!_ " Ghazi swore at Federov. "I thought you said he was a nothing."

"He was," Federov replied in confusion. "His job was to provide the team intel. Nothing more."

"It would appear his job description has changed. It would be in our best interest to find out everything he knows as well."

Ghazi went over to the cell. "Not to worry," he told the team. "You'll be on TV again. Your execution on the streets of Tehran will be…what did they used to call it?...Must-See TV."

Ghazi and Federov walked away, leaving a pair of guards to watch over the team.

 _ **Costons Lane – Greenford, UK  
May 21, 2016  
2:00 AM BST**_

Ellie stared out the window of the house into the night taking another sip from her cup of coffee. There wasn't much to see because of the lack of street lights, and the darkness certainly matched her mood. She had a few worrisome nights when Devon would go off to do his mountain climbing or ski in the Rockies. But this was far worse. Not only did she find out Chuck had been working with a team of secret agents for eight months, he had been put in harm's way several times already. And this time, he volunteered to go right into it. She had faith that Sarah and the others were the best, but she couldn't imagine any task like this being nothing but fraught with danger.

"Can't sleep, either?"

Ellie turned to see Alex standing behind her. She went to the coffee maker to pour herself a cup.

"No," Ellie sighed. "Not knowing is the worst part of all this. Not knowing Chuck became a government asset, not knowing if everybody will be coming back, not knowing what will happen next…"

"And not being able to do anything about it," Alex finished for her, to which Ellie nodded. "As a doctor, I imagine the desire to make things better is ingrained into you. I know that's how I feel right now."

Ellie looked at her for a long moment. "I…I found out a few things about you from Jimmy. I'm so sorry to hear about your father. Had I known all of what you've been through, I never would have…"

Alex put a hand up. "That still doesn't excuse what I did. That's why I never said anything: I didn't want to seem like I was trying to score sympathy points with you. I have to make up for what I did in the past. And the more I think about it, the more stupid I was to have acted that way."

"But what happened to you…I mean, I don't know if I'd ever recover from losing Devon like how you lost your fiancé."

Alex was silent. "He must have been quite a wonderful person," Ellie said tenderly.

"He was," Alex replied in a subdued voice. "His name was John O'Shea. Handsome as hell; sort of a lankier version of your husband but his hair was a bit more reddish. He grew up in Boston and moved to Raleigh as a teenager with his parents. One of the nicest people in the world. He was always buying me little gifts. I loved curling up with him in front of the fireplace on a cold night."

"Where did you meet him?"

"I was in training at Quantico. One Friday, my classmates and I went out to get hammered after a very tough exam by this SOB instructor we had. John apparently had a meeting with him earlier in the day and thought he was the reason we had a bad day. He bought us a couple of rounds, and my roommate at Quantico, Tamara, kept goading me into giving him my number. Eventually I caved. And it was the best decision I ever made."

"Sounds like you had a different life back then."

"I did. I worked hard and partied hard from freshman year in high school onward. Drove my poor parents nuts with all of the late nights and fighting with my brother."

"Where did he propose?"

"Right in the middle of Times Square on New Year's Eve." Alex shook her head and gave a little laugh. "I know. Total cliché, right? But he liked to romance me old-school, and I couldn't resist. We were going to get married in March of 2002. But then…"

Alex's breathing began to labor and Ellie put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Alex paused to wipe a few tears away. "Maybe I was fooling myself. Some stupid-assed 22-year-old who thought she had life figured out."

She then looked at Ellie. "Christ, what's wrong with me?" Alex muttered as she looked at the floor, even more upset with herself. "You basically had to raise Chuck since you were fifteen. I lost my youth; you never even got to enjoy yours."

"But we both turned out with so much more than when we started," Ellie replied confidently. "I always wanted to be a doctor and find some wonderful person who loved me, and that happened. I wanted Chuck to find someone special, and I think it's safe to say he couldn't do much better than he did."

Ellie turned Alex towards her. "You were given a second chance. What are you going to do with it?"

Alex looked up at Ellie. A small smile came across her face, the thought of Jimmy crossing her mind. "Make it count."

The two women rose and Ellie gave Alex a hug.

 _ **Lankaran, Azerbaijan  
May 21, 2016  
12:30 AM AZT**_

Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy returned to the hill where they observed the villa. All three of them were worried sick for their friends, but they knew time was of the essence and they needed information on where everyone was taken.

"The guards are gone," Carina observed. Her voice was considerably subdued. No doubt she was having a hard time dealing with Cole's capture. And judging by the look on Chuck's face, Sarah being taken was weighing heavily on him, too.

"They must have moved them elsewhere," Jimmy concluded. "And that's the $64,000 question, isn't it."

"How are we supposed to find them?" Chuck asked.

"We have to hope there's some information on Aslanov's operations in there…or maybe something you can flash on."

Jimmy drove the SUV towards the villa but found a spot that allowed for an easier escape just in case there were still people there. Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy exited the SUV. Jimmy opened up the back and took out their zipline gear. Carina readied the plates and straps for all three as Jimmy hammered one end of the zipline into a nearby tree. He loaded the other end into his piton gun and fired, anchoring it to the roof of the villa. Carina got up on the zipline first and glided the seventy-five yards to the roof. Chuck went next, and Jimmy brought up the rear.

They quickly found an air vent on the roof and took off the cover. They dropped into a closet on the top floor of the villa, landing in what looked like Aslanov's master bedroom.

"This guy lives pretty well," Chuck observed, taking note of the expensive clothing and other personal items.

"Selling weapons to terrorists is a lucrative business," Carina replied darkly.

They then heard a low growl. They turned to stare at Jimmy.

"That wasn't me," he said in annoyance. "Why do I always get blamed for that?"

They looked through the slats of the closet door and their eyes widened in shock.

An Asiatic lion walked into the bedroom.

"Holy crap," Jimmy whispered. "I didn't know Siegfried and Roy retired out here."

Chuck shuddered. "I haven't seen anything that scary since Casey was a guest on _Celebrity Name Game_. How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

Carina quickly rummaged through the drawers and shelves. "Here, tranquilizer darts. But where's the gun?"

Chuck saw a collar around the lion and began to have a flash, seeing images of mountains, desert sunsets, and a bio on Aslanov…contained in a flash drive.

"Guys, there's a flash drive on the lion's neck," Chuck whispered.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding," Carina growled.

"What?"

Carina held up the tranq gun…which was broken. She threw it back on the shelf in disgust and pulled out her Sig.

"No, we are not shooting a lion!" Chuck exclaimed.

"Chuck, there's no time! We have to get everyone back!"

"Then…why can't we just throw the tranq dart at the lion?"

"Think, Chuck! It has to go in at a high velocity to penetrate the lion. Unless you just want to walk right up to it and stab it!"

"We can't kill a lion. They're an endangered species!"

"Everybody is an endangered species right now!"

"Oh, for chrissake!" Jimmy growled.

Jimmy grabbed one of the tranq darts and went to the door. The lion turned to the side, and Jimmy leaped out of the closet. He ran at the lion, dove over it to the floor, and pulled it down with him. He scissor-locked his legs, trapping most of the lion's body between them. He then held the lion's head down to the carpet with his forearm as he stabbed her with the tranq dart.

He then started scratching the lion gently along her face. "Awww, who's a good girl?" he said in a soothing voice to the lion. "Does nobody feed you around here? I'll get you a nice antelope or a zebra for breakfast. Would you like that? You're such a pretty cat. You take a rest, sweetie."

The lion's eyes glazed over and she fell asleep. Jimmy extracted himself from under her and stood, reaching down to gently unhook the collar from around the lion, petting her one last time. Chuck and Carina walked slowly out of the closet absolutely stunned.

Jimmy turned to them. "What?" he asked, dumbfounded at the looks on their faces.

"You…you just…you just tackled a lion," Chuck stammered.

"We didn't have a tranq gun," Jimmy replied with a shrug.

"But you just tackled a lion!"

Jimmy threw his hands up. "We didn't have a tranq gun."

Carina shook her head clear. "I think what Chuck's trying to say…he means…YOU JUST TACKLED A LION!"

"We didn't have a TRANQ GUN!" Jimmy yelled. "Why is this so hard to figure out?"

Chuck and Carina turned to each other completely flummoxed. "Should we…" Chuck began.

"I don't have a better idea," Carina replied.

Both of them stepped forward and smacked Jimmy upside the head.

"Hey, only Sarah gets to do that!" Jimmy growled.

"Oh, and she will when she finds out what you just did," Carina retorted.

He slapped the collar into Chuck's hand. "Let's just get the goddamn intel," he replied in aggravation. "Christ, I was just doing my job here."

"YOU TACKLED A LION!" both Chuck and Carina screamed at him.

"Seriously, are you two going to keep bitching at me or are we gonna rescue everyone?" Jimmy snapped.

Chuck shook his head in total disbelief as they walked out of the bedroom into what looked like Aslanov's office. Chuck tried to boot the computer up.

"We need a password," Chuck said in frustration. He looked at the screen and his Intersect kicked in, seeing images of lions in a zoo, pastures, and a translation of Aslanov's name into English.

"HeartOfALion," he said, gritting his teeth as he typed in the correct password. "That's what Aslanov's name means in Azerbaijani."

"Are you OK?" Carina asked him.

"Fine," Chuck quickly replied. He inserted the flash drive, and the three studied the information.

"There are a lot of places they could be," Carina noted. "Aslanov owns a number of facilities all over the region."

"Shame we can't call for satellite recon," Jimmy replied. "We'd find them in seconds."

They saw images of several locations owned by Aslanov. Chuck stopped at a building in Kuvanil. "What about that one?"

Jimmy studied it. "It wouldn't take much to haul five hostages there. It's only fifteen miles away. Well-fortified concrete, and if he has weapons stored there, they can defend it easily. If I were them, I'd probably choose that locale to hide everybody."

"If they don't try to kill them first."

Jimmy shook his head. "If that's what they wanted, they would have killed Case and Ilsa already. They set a trap for us, so they want us. All of us. And given you managed to get away from them, you probably piqued their curiosity, too."

Chuck leaned back in the chair. "We can't do this alone. We're going to need an army to beat them."

Carina stared forward for a moment. A tiny smile graced her lips.

"Leave that to me," she said, suddenly brimming with confidence.

 _ **Kuvanil, Azerbaijan  
May 21, 2016  
4:00 AM AZT**_

Sarah, Casey, Ilsa, Cole, and Amir sat in the jail cell in the basement of the building. They hadn't said much to each other since they were moved here, unsure if the cell was being monitored from the outside. If it was, Aslanov and Ghazi were very good at keeping it hidden. Two guards patrolled outside of the cell.

Ilsa sat down on the bench next to Casey. "I really wish it hadn't come to this," she said quietly, careful to avoid making any movements that would attract the attention of the guards.

"We're not dead yet," Casey replied with self-assurance.

"Wish I could be that optimistic," Cole whispered sitting on the opposite side from Casey. "We got our arses handed to us at the villa. This place is much more secure and we have less than half the team on the outside."

"We're getting out of here," Casey promised. "Miller and Slade are two of the best. And Bartowski…Jesus, that kid does not know how to give up."

"Finally warming up to him?" Sarah asked with a smile.

"Not in the same way you have," Casey retorted with considerable snark.

Amir walked over to them. "If they're coming, we have to be ready," he whispered. "We have to look for any opportunity to take advantage, no matter how small."

"HEY!" one of the guards shouted, pointing his gun at the group. "Back to where you were."

Everybody glared at him for a moment before slowly returning to their original spots. Casey thought for a moment. He then glanced at Sarah, catching her attention. He then looked back and forth between Ilsa and her, curling up his hand into a fist. Sarah caught it and nodded. Ilsa looked at the two and also nodded. Casey nodded towards the guards and carefully put his hand out, telling Sarah and Ilsa to wait for the proper moment.

~/^\~

Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy drove their SUV to a warehouse one hundred yards away from Aslanov's hideout. Carina and Jimmy checked their weapons as Chuck readied his mobile phone.

"What was our deal, Chuck?" Carina asked in a rather brusque fashion.

"Wait out here, I know," he replied in disappointment. "Not doing anything to help is the hard part."

"You're the one who has to drive our asses out of here," Jimmy said. "If that ain't helping us, I don't know what is."

"Just bring everyone out safely," he said quietly.

"Count on it," Carina said.

"Promise, man," Jimmy added, giving him a hug. "Set the clock for two minutes."

Chuck hit the timer function on his smartphone. "Go."

Carina and Jimmy exited the vehicle and headed towards Aslanov's bunker. They kept a sharp eye out for surveillance cameras and motion sensors, as they expected the group to be ready for them. Jimmy pulled out his tablet computer and brought up the schematics of the building. They got into position.

The two minutes expired, and Chuck punched the text into his phone. He put it away and waited nervously, keeping an iron grip on the steering wheel. One way or another, this was going to be over in the next ten minutes.

~/^\~

Carina and Jimmy readied their weapons, keeping an eye on the dozen ISIS soldiers patrolling the grounds. They then heard a faint whooshing sound in the background. The ISIS soldiers also began to look around, wondering what sound they were hearing. By the time they saw the pair of Viper AH-1Z helicopters rising over the hill, they were under attack by an agent firing away with an M134 minigun. Those soldiers began to take hits as a dozen MI-6 agents began to rappel down from the two helicopters, clad in body armor and brandishing automatic weapons.

Carina and Jimmy switched on their communications gear. "Create a perimeter!" Carina shouted as they charged towards the building. They shot two more soldiers on the way as the assault team took care of the remaining men. Jimmy broke down the door to the main entrance, and the two ran inside.

~/^\~

Two more guards joined the two that were already watching the team. Casey noticed the look of worry on their faces and then looked back and forth between Sarah and Ilsa, giving a quick nod. They nodded back.

"This is your fault!" Sarah yelled, getting into Ilsa's face. "You got us captured because you had to play John Wayne!"

Ilsa rose. "Don't even start with me! It's not my fault you did such a half-assed job of rescuing John! I could have gotten us out if you weren't so damn incompetent!"

"Don't tell me how to do my job!"

"Then try doing it, you bitch!" Ilsa yelled, shoving Sarah hard into the bench. She got up and lunged at Ilsa, the two falling over the other bench and struggling with each other. Casey, Cole, and Amir tried to separate them to no avail. The four guards looked on in confusion.

One of them readied his weapon. "We can't," another one said. "We lose all our money if they're dead."

The other two soldiers went to the door, one of them unlocking it and the other readying their weapon. The one ran in, and Amir suddenly turned, elbowing the man in the face. He dropped his gun as he fell, which Cole grabbed. He opened fire, taking out another soldier. One tried to aim his weapon through the bars, but Casey reached out and grabbed the man's arm, pulling the man hard and sending his head crashing into the bars, knocking him out cold. He grabbed the gun and fired at the last guard, who went down.

Sarah got up quickly and pulled Ilsa up with her. "If the show ever does come back, I think you just earned yourself a guest appearance," she told Ilsa, who smiled at the compliment.

The five gathered the soliders' weapons and quickly exited the basement.

~/^\~

Carina and Jimmy rushed down the hallway. They stopped at a large room full of armaments. Jimmy reached into his backpack and pulled out three large bricks of C-4. He switched on the detonators and threw them into the room. They continued down the hallway and turned the corner…running into a half-dozen ISIS soldiers, who went on the attack. Carina spun and landed a hard kick at the closest one while Jimmy swung his backpack to knock out two others. He ducked down as Carina rolled over him to land a kick at a fourth man. He got up just in time to throw a nasty haymaker at the fifth one. The last one looked back and forth and then simply put his hands up. Carina and Jimmy walked calmly past him, Jimmy elbowing him in the jaw to knock him out as they went by.

~/^\~

Sarah, Casey, Ilsa, Cole, and Amir made their way up the stairs, looking for the exit. They turned to hear the click of a gun. They turned to see Ghazi and Sayed behind them.

"You are not going anywhere," Ghazi hissed. "Do you think I plan to let go of my big payday?"

Casey slowly put his hands up. Sarah began to do the same. She then reached for the two knives behind Casey's back they confiscated from the soldiers and threw them, hitting both Ghazi and Sayed. They grasped their chests and collapsed to the ground.

"The check just bounced," Casey spat at Ghazi's body.

Carina and Jimmy came running from the other direction. "Everybody OK?" Carina asked.

"Yeah, we're good," Sarah replied.

"Let's blow this popsicle stand. All teams, fall back as planned," Jimmy ordered over his communications gear as everybody exited the facility. He looked around to make sure the coast was clear. "Chuck, time to pick up the kids from school."

"He came with you?" Sarah was suddenly breathing fire.

"Yell at him, not us."

"Don't worry," Carina said. "You'll have plenty of time to yell at Jimmy when you hear about the lion."

"The WHAT?!"

"Nice effort," a voice behind the group said. "But all for nothing."

Everybody turned to see Aslanov and the last of the ISIS soldiers with weapons aimed in their direction.

"If you don't mind, we're going to leave now," Cole said in total derision.

"No you are not. I can still make quite a bit of money off of your capture. And between the reward for turning all of you over to ISIS and everything I possess here, I'll become a very rich man."

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. He then reached into his pocket and pressed a button on a remote detonator. Explosions rocked the area, taking Aslanov and his soldiers by surprise. The seven agents easily overpowered them, knocking them to the ground.

"Now it's a tax write-off," Jimmy replied, aiming his guns at the prone Aslanov.

"Bring up a team to take these people into custody," Carina said over her earpiece to the MI-6 agents. She then turned to Cole. "So, are my rescue skills improving?"

"A little," Cole replied with a smile. "Are these the same agents…"

Carina nodded. "The same ones we staked out to find Ilsa. I figured since they were here to work anyway, why not make them earn their pay."

"That they did. That was some brilliant…"

"LOOK OUT!"

Amir dove at the group and shoved them hard as Victor Federov opened up on them with an automatic weapon. Ilsa stumbled a few steps before getting her bearings. She whipped out her gun and emptied her clip into Federov, who was riddled with bullets and fell to the ground.

" _Enfoiré_ ," she hissed.

Cole and Carina turned. "Oh, my God!" Carina cried in complete horror at seeing Amir on the ground with several gunshot wounds.

Casey picked Amir up as Jimmy led them to one of the choppers. "Chuck, get here now!" he shouted.

The group ran towards the chopper as the last of the MI-6 agents boarded it. The agents looked in shock at one of their own being carried to them. They made space as Casey gently laid Amir in the chopper. Carina and Cole jumped in the chopper as Chuck pulled up in the SUV. The rest of the team got in the SUV as the chopper took off for the closest warship just off of the coast in the Caspian Sea.

"Amir!" Cole yelled, holding his hand. "Stay with us, mate! We're getting you help. Stay awake!"

Amir pointed at his neck. A shaky finger grabbed the chain he was wearing. "Trevor…for Trevor," he warbled. "Tell him…"

"No, stay with us!" Carina cried.

"Tell…him…"

Amir's hand dropped. His eyes stared ahead and his breathing ceased.

Carina covered her mouth as tears welled in her eyes. Cole pulled her into his embrace as he felt a few tears coming as well. One of the MI-6 agents gently closed Amir's eyes and removed the chain around his neck, handing it and the key on it to Cole. The helicopter continued out to the Caspian Sea with everyone sitting in silence, a few saying prayers for Amir.

 _ **Mayfair – London, UK  
May 24, 2016  
7:00 PM BST**_

Cole knocked gently on the door to Trevor's apartment while Carina and Grace stood quietly behind him. He was about to commit a major breach of protocol but he didn't give a damn. Trevor lost his boyfriend, the love of his life, and he was still alive because of Amir stepping in front of those bullets. To hell with the rules of British Intelligence; if Trevor wanted to know the truth, he was going to find out what kind of hero Amir was.

The door opened. Trevor answered it with an extremely haggard appearance. It was obvious he had shed a lot of tears over the last several days. Informing a family member or a loved one of an agent's death was something the government was very efficient at. However, they were always told a lie; either they were in a traffic accident or were killed in a robbery. Cole couldn't handle Trevor wanting to know the truth and being fed a great lie.

"Cole," Trevor said in a shaky voice.

Cole pulled him in and hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry, Trev. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you," Trevor whispered. He then looked at Carina and Grace, both of whom were trying not to be overcome themselves. "Still dating Carina, I see."

Cole nodded and then turned to Grace. "And this is Grace Hawkinson."

"I'm so sorry, Trevor," Grace said, shaking his hand.

"Why are all of you here?" Trevor asked as he gestured weakly for them to enter the apartment.

Cole breathed in and out slowly to steady himself. "I wanted to tell you a few things about Amir. But I completely understand if you don't want to hear them."

"No, no. What is going on? Please tell me."

"Amir…wasn't killed in an auto accident in Tangier. He also wasn't a history professor at Oxford. He worked for MI-6. As do I and as does Grace. And Carina is an actual spy; not just an actress playing one."

"What?" Trevor was barely able to breathe at hearing this.

"All of us were on a mission," Carina continued. "On the TV show, all four of us are real spies. Sarah, John, Jimmy, and I are an actual team of agents for the CIA. John was kidnapped, and Amir helped us to find him and get him out."

"He gave up his life to save all of us," Cole said, gripping the armrests of his chair as he did so. "Amir was one of the best spies I ever met and he was an even better friend."

Trevor stared in wide-eyed shock. "Why…why didn't anyone tell me?"

"They only reveal that information if an agent is killed and only to their spouse or their parents if they're still alive. Once you two had gotten married, you would have found out. But I wanted to give you the chance to know how brave he was. What he did for us."

"Trevor wanted you to have this," Grace said, handing Trevor a small lockbox along with the key that was around his neck when he died.

Trevor put the box in his lap and unlocked it. He looked inside and gave a little smile.

"He kept the photos," Trevor said. Carina, Cole, and Grace moved around to have a look.

"That's us at Disney World," Trevor narrated, showing everyone the first picture. He flipped to the next. "Oh, that was a riot. We got that picture in Las Vegas with those Elvis impersonators."

"You two posed as Elvis better than the impersonators did," Carina said, gently rubbing Trevor's back.

"And there," Trevor said as he pulled out a picture of Amir and him in front of the Eiffel Tower. "That's where I was thinking of proposing to him, where we had our first vacation together. I just didn't know when I'd be able to pull it off. You think you have all the time in the world and then…"

Trevor dropped the picture and started to shake. The three pulled him into a tight embrace.

 _ **Costons Lane – Greenford, UK  
May 24, 2016  
10:00 PM BST**_

"To Amir."

Cole raised his glass among the group and everyone followed suit. The last several days had been incredibly difficult for everybody, but they hit Carina and Cole the hardest. Cole had been friends with Amir for several years, and neither of them would have hesitated to take a bullet for the other. But to have that actually happen was difficult to accept. Had it not been for Carina being by his side since they returned from the Caspian Sea, he figured he would have been completely worthless as a spy now.

"Chuck was right," Morgan said quietly. "This is…it takes a special type of person to do what all of you do. I feel like absolute hell, and I didn't even leave this house."

"Sometimes I think Graham had the right idea," Alex said with a sigh. "Being a spy on your own takes something away from you. I think he knew that. It's amazing how wrong TV shows and movies have this business, even _Spy Girl_."

"But _Spy Girl_ got one thing right," Ilsa said. "The way your characters watch out for each other, help each other…you're the best team in America for a reason. I'd be dead right now if not for all of you."

"Tell me taking those bad guys down was enough to get that General off your backs," Devon almost pleaded.

"Any other day, sure," Alex replied. "But to have someone with Chuck's abilities in their stable? They won't give that up. Forget the Ring: the CIA would kill all of us to keep Chuck working for them."

"No, this is over!" Ellie angrily retorted. "I don't give a damn if Chuck is Superman to them. He is NOT going back!"

"I agree," Sarah replied with equal conviction.

"Forrest is right, Sarah," Casey replied. "None of us want Chuck in the government, but there's no way in hell Beckman will back off."

"I don't give a damn! We put our lives on the line over and over again for her and to get Chuck out of this. He's staying out!"

"Then we spend the rest of our lives with a target on our backs."

"Case is right," Carina said. "We all want this to happen but there's no way to do it."

"I can't do that to them, Sarah," Chuck murmured. "After everything all of you did for me, I just can't stand to see any of you getting hurt."

"No!" Sarah was beginning to get upset with everyone. "Ellie is right. This is over. I'm not putting Chuck or his family through one more minute of this!"

"Wait…"

Everybody turned in Jimmy's direction. "We're looking at this the wrong way," he said quietly. "Beckman doesn't want Chuck; she wants an Intersect. She needs someone who can handle being the computer. So we give her one."

"We had someone. But Bryce is dead," Sarah replied. "We don't know anybody else who could be the Intersect."

Jimmy looked at her for a moment. "Yes you do."

Sarah stared back and her mouth eventually dropped open in shock. "No, absolutely not! Chuck went through enough hell as the Intersect already. There's no way I'll let you go through it twice!"

"I have news for you, Sarah. You don't get to make this decision. You heard Case. You try to keep Chuck away and we spent the rest of our lives looking behind us and praying we don't take two to the back of the head! Either we do this or you risk our lives in protecting Chuck."

"Sarah," Chuck said gently. "Let me talk to you and Jimmy alone for a moment."

The three walked into one of the bedrooms away from the group. "I think Jimmy's right," Chuck said. "I think this might be the best solution."

"What?" Sarah was incensed.

"There's something I didn't want to tell you before because I didn't want you to worry. But the last few times I flashed, I started to feel pain."

Sarah looked mad enough to attack Chuck right there. "Why didn't you tell me? That was stupid. You NEVER keep something like that from me!"

"I wasn't sure at first. But I felt a little bit of pain when we ziplined from the hotel. Then I felt it again getting away when you were captured and then when we found the intel on Aslanov's location."

"Then I'm not letting Jimmy upload an Intersect! The same thing will happen to him!"

"Maybe not," Jimmy said.

"What do you mean?"

"The Intersect Chuck has was meant for Bryce, not him. What if that's the reason for the headaches? Maybe Chuck's father could create an Intersect specifically designed for me and we do whatever it takes to either get it into me or destroy it if that can't be done."

"Do you know what you're giving up?" Sarah asked him in a much quieter voice. "The risk you're taking?"

Jimmy shied away momentarily. "Sarah, you need to be out of the spy business and be with Chuck. All of us want that. But I need this team. When the four of us were broken up, it hit me…hard. I thought it was all over and I was ready to..." he shook his head clear. "But now I know it's not over. This is how we make things right. This is how we give everybody a happy ending. You get to ride off into the sunset with Chuck, and your team continues to save the world."

Sarah looked at the ground, completely humbled by this. In her determination…her near-obsession…with keeping Chuck out of the spy world, it never occurred to do what she had been doing for years: trust her friends. And now they were willing to do all of this for her. She considered herself a very lucky person, indeed.

She grabbed Jimmy and hugged him tightly, and Chuck hugged both of them. "Thank you," she said quietly.

The three returned to the group. "Let's do this," Sarah said with complete confidence. "We give Beckman her Intersect and she puts the team back together. There will be a season 7."

Everybody nodded in approval and renewed energy. "But what about, you know, those scary guys that almost kidnapped us?" Morgan asked.

Jimmy looked at everybody one-by-one.

"We take the bastards out."


	32. When The Going Gets Tough

_I do apologize for being a week late with this. I have been working as a substitute teacher for the last couple of weeks and haven't had a day off in ten days. Not to mention, I was driving myself nuts trying to make this chapter work...and I'm sure that will be obvious when you read it. I did want to give a quick shout-out to KrisWatchesOn, who used to post these great Chuck videos on YouTube, so I threw in a little Easter egg for her in there. And if you can find it...that's scary. I can imagine, however, you'll get a lot of the other references._

 _As always, NBC and Fake Empire productions are the creators of the good stuff, while I create the not-so-good stuff. I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner, but I'm still teaching over the next few weeks and I may be going out of town later in October. I'll do my best._

 _And please leave reviews. I always appreciate seeing those. Thanks!_

* * *

 _ **Costons Lane – Greenfield, UK  
May 24, 2016  
11:30 PM BST**_

Sarah sat at the kitchen table with considerable annoyance, although she had calmed down from earlier. Most of her irritation right now came from watching Chuck and Morgan playing _Halo_ on the X-Box Alex bought for Morgan while they were in London. She wanted some alone time with Chuck, even though she was as exhausted as everyone else. But it was hard to fight that boyish charm of Chuck, and she knew he had missed his best friend over the last several months.

She sighed as she took another sip of wine from a bottle they had opened earlier. She would have given anything for a better solution. She wanted nothing more than to get the Intersect out of Chuck and be with him away from the world of espionage. But she was having a hard time with what that would entail. She only knew about what happened to Jimmy the first time he had the Intersect from what he told her and what he had told Chuck. Jimmy always downplayed how bad his past was, afraid he would sound like he was whining, which meant what he went through having an Intersect must have been even worse than she could picture.

"He spends three days in extreme danger, and his first thought is to play some stupid videogame."

Sarah turned to see Ellie behind her shaking her head and smiling. "One of the worst days of my life was when Chuck saved enough money to buy a Nintendo," Ellie said with a chuckle. "Morgan hasn't left his side since. And don't even get me started on Morgan's teenage crush on me…that is probably still going."

Sarah laughed. "This is definitely taking 'boys will be boys' way too far for my liking."

Ellie sat down at the table next to Sarah. "I'm so glad you two returned safely, but I feel so horrible Cole lost his friend."

Sarah nodded sadly. "Amir was a good guy. I mean, I only knew him for a couple of days, but friends are hard to make in this business. It didn't take me long to see why Cole and he got along so well. The guy saved our lives."

"But I'm glad you and Chuck are back. I think I knew from that first night I met you that you liked him. I could just see it in your face."

"I feel pretty foolish now, denying myself what I wanted for so long. I'm so glad you gave me that little kick in the ass when you visited the studio. You were right. I didn't need the show, and I didn't need to be a spy. I just needed Chuck."

She then stared ahead and her face drew into a look of worry. "What is it?" Ellie asked.

"I'm just remembering something from when Chuck, Jimmy, and I talked. Jimmy said the reason he wanted to do this was that he really needed the team back together. He admitted our breakup hit him hard. Then he was about to say something and stopped. He tried to play it off like it wasn't important. But…"

That got Ellie's attention. "He did the same thing with us a couple of times. He would start to say what he was doing during the last few weeks and then go silent. Something's not right."

"And Carina hadn't heard from him since your wedding until he called to say that all of you were attacked in L.A. Something must have happened in that time before he rescued Alex. Something he's keeping from us."

"Maybe he told Alex. She's seen him the most since the wedding. Why don't you ask her?"

Sarah scoffed slightly at that. "We're…not exactly on the greatest terms right now."

Ellie put her hand on Sarah's arm. "I sympathize, Sarah. I know she almost cost you your job and what she almost did to Chuck…I can't blame you for hating her. But I think she's telling the truth when she says she's not the same person now. She had no good reason to admit to me she almost shot Chuck to prevent his capture but she did. And then to lose her fiancé in the Pentagon on 9/11…"

Sarah's eyes widened. "She was going to get married?"

"She was in training to join the FBI, met a guy, and they fell in love." Ellie felt a shiver go through her. "I don't even want to imagine the hell she went through that day."

Sarah fell silent. She figured there had to be something that turned Alex Forrest into one of the most cold-hearted agents in the CIA. Practically every agent has a story to them. But she never expected that to be Alex's story. And had this been ten years ago, she wouldn't have cared. She was probably as ruthless as Alex was back then. But meeting Bryce, being promoted to the TV show, and working with Casey, Carina, and Jimmy had changed her outlook on life. And what Chuck had done for her over the last eight months was beyond measure.

Ellie was right. To have your entire life ripped away from you in a single moment would be tough for anyone to recover from. Alex deserved to be cut some slack. Besides, anybody who could finally convince Jimmy to get his head out of his ass and make him realize he could find someone special couldn't be all bad.

"You're right. Thanks, Ellie," Sarah said with a warm smile, putting her hand over Ellie's.

 _ **Soho – London, UK  
May 25, 2016  
12:00 AM BST**_

"Are you sure about this?"

Cole looked around his empty apartment. Empty perfectly described how he felt right then. Carina and he spent a couple of days aboard the _HMS Eddington_ taking care of Amir's last instructions and requests. Back home, Grace Hawkinson did not take the news well at all, but that was to be expected. Cole was so grateful she still arranged the clean-up of Amir's personal effects from the apartment and located the lockbox Amir wanted Trevor to have. That list of things Cole owed Hawk was quite long now, but he had every intention of fulfilling it.

"I have to sometime," he sighed. "The rent won't pay itself. I have to get back to living here when I'm not working."

Carina squeezed his hand. "It's amazing how different you are from that first night I met you in New York."

Cole nodded. "I could say the same about you. I must be honest: I don't think I've ever felt like this at losing a fellow agent. I've felt bad for it happening, certainly. You never want to see one of your co-workers killed, even if it was in the line of duty and to save everyone. If this job is meant to kill us, there's no better way to go. But this…"

"You two were good friends. There's no shame in admitting that."

Cole turned to her with a tiny smile. "I blame you for this, actually." Carina gave him a look, which he countered with an even bigger smile. "You're the one who got me thinking about more than just missions. Hanging out with you and your friends has made me rethink a lot of the things I've done in the last fifteen years. My attitude towards others, the things I did for queen and country."

Carina gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I used to be that way myself. I don't make friends easily. And the ones I did, I had no trouble putting myself ahead of them. But now…"

Carina shivered and Cole drew her closer to him. "I don't know," she said softly. "I only knew Amir for only a couple of weeks and it felt like we had been friends for years. I…I knew I had changed the longer I worked with Sarah and the others, but this…I guess I didn't realize until now how much I have changed."

"Maybe it's like that Pink Floyd song said: we're just two lost souls swimming in the fishbowl year after year," Cole replied.

Carina turned to Cole and took his face in her hands. "But the good news is, I think we're a little less lost now."

She pulled him to her and gave him a passionate kiss.

 _ **Hotel 41, Westminster – London, UK  
May 25, 2016  
12:15 AM BST**_

Alex took a towel and dried her face in the bathroom of Jimmy's and her hotel suite. After the team agreed on the best way to approach Beckman, Cole and Carina left. It would be the first time sleeping in his apartment since Amir's death, but he insisted he had to do it at some point. And Carina insisted she accompany him. With only three bedrooms in the safehouse, Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Ilsa stayed there so they could keep an eye on Ellie and Devon, leaving Morgan to nap on the couch…once he finished his X-Box marathon with Chuck. Alex went into the hotel they found and signed the registry using the fake passport Jimmy provided while he snuck in a side entrance and took the service elevator up to their room. They hoped the public's memory was short and forgot about her brief appearance in front of the cameras two months ago at Ted Roark's mansion.

"Are you sure about all of this?" Alex called to Jimmy. "From what Sarah and the others have said, you went through hell when you had the Intersect in you. Sure, it was years ago, but this is a big thing you're doing."

She started to walk out of the bathroom. "I know you want to help them leave the spy business, and I promised both Ellie and Sarah I'd help make that happen, but I'm worried that…"

Jimmy was out cold on the bed.

Alex shook her head and smiled. It was the first night back in London for the team after rescuing Ilsa from Azerbaijan, and she had hoped she could get some romantic time with Jimmy, but she should have guessed he would be bushed. The entire team had a rough week…even her. Although that was mostly from Morgan's incessant questions about being an agent, which was quickly cured by a trip to a local electronics store to buy him an X-Box. Everyone else helped take down one of the deadliest terror cells operating in that part of the world and a major weapons supplier for ISIS. And there was little question they still felt the hurt of losing Amir. But she felt even more sympathy for Jimmy, who probably had two of the roughest weeks of his life trying to defend Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and her, to say nothing about coming so close to committing suicide before that.

She went to the bed and took Jimmy's shoes off of him. She then gently extricated the covers from under him, leaving him turned on his side. She got in the bed, covering both of them with the blankets. She snuggled next to him, gently taking his arm and wrapping it around her. She settled in, never feeling more at ease in her life. She sighed contentedly, pulling Jimmy over her like a comfortable blanket. There was a bit of a chill in the room, and cuddling against his large frame felt wonderful.

She then heard a happy moan from him as he instinctively took her in his embrace. She smiled and gently reached back to caress his cheek. It wasn't quite as good as sex, but she'd take it.

She could talk to the teddy bear in the morning. She'd enjoy this for tonight.

 _ **Citation Latitude over the Atlantic Ocean  
May 25, 2016  
2:30 PM ADST**_

"And I thought the flight here was epic!"

Even Chuck was starting to grow a bit weary of Morgan's wide-eyed amazement at every little thing ever since he discovered his best friend was a secret agent and the stars of his favorite show were, too. But Chuck couldn't be too mad on this one. Even he thought flying on a private jet from London to Washington, D.C. was awesome. But it made sense to charter a private flight back home. It allowed everyone to keep a low profile, to say nothing about departing from the much-quieter Gatwick Airport instead of Heathrow, where Cole had a few friends that could keep the flight's passenger list off the computers.

Ilsa and Cole joined everybody else on the flight. He had asked for two weeks off following what happened with Amir. Given how much the team accomplished in taking down a major arms dealer and a terror cell, Cole's bosses were in a giving mood. And since the DGSE was still denying Ilsa's very existence even now, she figured they couldn't do anything worse to her than what she had been through in the last few days.

"I'm actually glad to be going home," Chuck said quietly as he sat next to Morgan, nursing a glass of water. "I loved being with Sarah, but then it was almost impossible to stay out of sight. And then what happened in Azerbaijan…"

Morgan exhaled. "OK, there was a lot of bad with the good. All the danger, Cole losing his buddy, having to lie to your sister and me. But now you get to go back and tell the government what it can go do with itself. Who wouldn't love to be able to do that? And then, you get to be with Sarah. I mean Sarah WALKER! You know how many guys at Comic Con would give anything just to get her to wave at them? And she is totally in love with you, man!"

A tiny smile came to Chuck. "That's still so hard to believe. How did I get that lucky?"

"It wasn't luck. It was all you, dude. You were the same awesome, cool guy you've always been and she saw that. Obviously, she's beyond gorgeous, and to find out she can really do the things Jen Burton can do is just so mind-blowing. You're lucky to have met her, yeah. But I think she did pretty well for herself, too."

The smile on Chuck's face grew wider. "Thanks, buddy," he said, giving Morgan a hug.

"Anytime, man," Morgan replied. "We're in this together, right?"

Sarah walked up and gave Chuck a kiss. "I have to go talk to Jimmy for a moment, but I want some alone time with Chuck when I get back," Sarah said, giving a raised eyebrow to Morgan.

"Yeah, sure sure," Morgan replied, clearly embarrassed he had been hogging Chuck for the past twenty-four hours.

Both Chuck and Morgan watched her walk to the back of the plane. "She's…she's scary," Morgan stammered.

"You have no idea," Chuck agreed.

Sarah made it to the last row where Jimmy was sitting. Alex was sitting two rows ahead of him talking to Casey and Ilsa, and Jimmy just looked out the window in silence.

"Are you OK?" Sarah asked as she sat down next to him.

"Sure," Jimmy replied quietly, glancing over at her.

"I'm still…I'm worried about this. What Chuck's going through right now…and what you went through when you had the Intersect."

Jimmy shook his head. "That was twenty-five years ago. I think it's safe to say things are different now."

"But Chuck is…"

"Look, if I'm wrong about this, fine. But one way or another, he's getting the Intersect out and you two are done being spies. I don't give a damn what it takes, you two have earned the right to live happily ever after."

"And what about you?"

"I stay a spy. Big deal."

"No, stop it. Quit acting like what happens to you doesn't matter. I want Chuck out but I won't risk your life to do it."

"Are we going to start that argument again?"

"This isn't even about getting the Intersect out of Chuck anymore! You're hell-bent on keeping the team together. You said last night you need the team, and you told Carina when she went rogue that without the team, you had nothing."

Sarah was silent for a moment. "What happened to you after the wedding? Carina said you disappeared and only contacted her because Ellie, Devon, and Morgan were attacked. And Ellie said you went silent any time you were about to say what happened to you. All I know is you freed Alex from capture and went to her father's funeral. What happened before that? What were you doing for those two weeks?"

"It doesn't matter…"

"Yes it does! Obviously something terrible happened. That's your pattern. I don't even think you realize you're doing it. You never say anything or you try to play it off whenever something bad happens to you.

"I want the truth, Jimmy. We are not doing this until I know what happened to you. And don't try to tell me it's in the past or it's stupid or it doesn't matter. I want to know right now."

Jimmy exhaled in frustration. "I…had a hard time handling Beckman's decision to disband the team. The media and the fans swarmed me, especially after they aired that cliffhanger. I just wanted to disappear. I sat on this beach back home, trying to forget everything. But it just got worse and worse. Then I started drinking, just like my dad did. And…"

Sarah saw Jimmy freeze up and her eyes widened. "What?" she whispered in fear.

"I…the...Alex's distress call was the only thing that stopped me from taking my own life." Jimmy muttered as he hung his head.

Sarah sat back in her seat and had difficulty breathing. "Oh, God. Why didn't you…I never thought that would happen. I was so caught up in keeping Chuck away from the CIA. I should have…"

"Stop right there," Jimmy replied forcefully. "I didn't get to say it doesn't matter, so you don't get to do the "I should have…" bullshit. This is not your fault. I was a goddamn idiot for even contemplating it. I did a stupid thing in a moment of weakness, OK? It's that simple."

"No, it wasn't a moment of weakness," Sarah fired back. "We all felt it. I just wished you would have talked to one of us. But it makes sense now. Why you need the team so badly, why you volunteered to be the Intersect. When you thought you had turned into your father, you were afraid you had lost everything. You're afraid of going back to your past. Well, I can guarantee you that will never happen. You can't go back; you're not the same person you used to be. None of us are. We changed because we changed each other. We cared for each other and made each other better. We became a family. There is nothing anyone can do that will tear it apart."

She took his hand. "Besides, I was right," she said with a grin. "I told you someone would find you. I never expected it to be Alex, but it sounds like she really has changed. And I'm glad. You deserve someone good."

Jimmy nodded gently. "Yeah, you did say sooner or later, someone would push right past all of my BS. Alex sort of gave me the same speech…with a few more not-exactly-gentle suggestions thrown in."

"I can imagine. Subtlety is not her strong suit. But after all you did for her, I think she's going to do whatever it takes to hang on to you. It's a smart move on her part. I certainly know how good of a catch you are."

Jimmy looked abashedly at the floor. "Thanks."

Sarah gave him a light smack upside the head. "But no more dumb moves like that. You're not getting rid of us that easily."

"Understood, boss."

Sarah then hugged him tightly. "Just glad you got everyone back together. We missed all of you."

"You too, kiddo," Jimmy replied.

Sarah got up and walked back to the front of the plane where Chuck and Morgan were. She tapped Morgan on his shoulder.

"Sorry to do this to you, Morgan, but we timeshare our favorite playmate and it's my turn now," she said with a grin.

Morgan exhaled in defeat as he got up. "Yeah, I'm never winning this battle. I can only offer him videogames and awesome discussions about the latest Marvel movie, and you can offer him, well, that," he said dejectedly, gesturing at Sarah's body.

"So true, so true," she said smugly as she let Morgan go by, tousling his hair as he walked down the aisle towards the back. She sat down next to Chuck. "Hey there," she said.

"Is everything OK with Jimmy?" Chuck asked.

"It's fine," she replied. "I just needed to hear what happened to him while we were gone, but everything's OK now." She stared ahead for a moment and began to laugh. "I still can't believe he finally caved and slept with Alex. With the person who almost broke up our team, no less. I never would have predicted that in a million years. But then, who would have guessed Case finding Ilsa again and Carina risking her career and life to rescue someone like Cole."

Sarah turned to Chuck and grinned. "Maybe you should start your own matchmaking service. You certainly did a good job with the people I work with."

He laughed. "After what happened with me and Jill, that is seriously ironic."

"Hey, that one's on her. She obviously didn't know a good thing when she saw it." Sarah pulled Chuck's face to her and gave him a passionate kiss. "I was just talking to Jimmy about how all of us are different because when we became part of this team. But since you joined us, we became even better. Better agents, better people You made that happen. I know you've done so much for me."

Chuck gazed into her sapphire eyes and gave her a warm smile. He slid his hand along her cheek and ran his fingers through her hair, gently pulling him to her. Sarah held him as the two shared an ardent kiss.

"Ewwww…"

Both of them broke apart and turned to see Casey there with a look of disgust.

"Now we really need to get the Intersect out of you…just so I don't have to be tortured like this anymore," he grumbled in repugnance.

"Uh, Case? You do know you're within earshot of your girlfriend, right?" Chuck retorted with a smirk as he pointed behind Casey to where Ilsa was standing…quite amused.

"It's not the same thing."

"And why not?" Ilsa said with a raised eyebrow.

"This should be fun," Sarah said, sitting back sporting the biggest grin on her face at Casey getting flustered.

"We still need a plan to talk to Beckman," Casey said quickly to get the spotlight off of him. "Forrest got us a place to land without anybody knowing it's us, but we're not going to get very far."

"You'd think she'd be happy she'll be getting her Intersect back, even if it isn't me," Chuck said.

"Case is right," Sarah replied in disappointment. "She's mad as hell right now, and we'll be lucky if she hasn't ordered every agent to shoot us on sight."

"And even if you could stay away from them, you can't stay away from the public," Ilsa added. "So many people would recognize your faces, you have no place to hide. What if Cole, Alex, or I went in? We wouldn't be recognized."

"Beckman knows where I've been by now," Casey replied. "She knows I went to find you, and Barker and Forrest have already shafted her. She'd arrest you three just as fast as she'd arrest us. She's got the government and a ton of resources on her side."

"So take that away from her."

Everybody turned to see Morgan behind them. "It's like that second season episode," Morgan continued as everybody else moved up to listen. "Remember when Jen Burton and Jack Coulton kidnapped their own boss because a mole in the agency made him believe you two went rogue? You showed him the evidence of who the mole was and saved the day."

"This isn't the show, Morgan," Sarah replied sharply.

"No, wait," Chuck said. "I think he's onto something. I mean, Beckman's got the entire government after us, even after everything we did for her? I think a little payback is in order!"

Everybody stared at Chuck in surprise. "We shouldn't have to take this," he continued as he got more and more worked up. "If we want to pull this off, I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!"

Morgan grabbed Chuck. "We're just the guys to do it!"

"Oh, shut up," Casey growled, rolling his eyes.

"Easy, Niedermeyer," Jimmy retorted. "Chuck's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We have to meet Beckman on our terms, not hers. If she wants the Intersect, she damn well better give us what we want, starting with Chuck and Sarah's retirement."

"Chuck, won't you need your father to get the Intersect out?" Alex asked. "I mean, we still don't know if the problems you're having are due to the Intersect being incompatible. And you'd need him to make a new one for Jimmy."

Chuck nodded. "You're right. We have to find him before Beckman finds us. I think we can assume we won't find him living in that same trailer near Barstow."

"Wait, wait…Dad?" Ellie stared in surprise. "He invented the Intersect?"

"A long time ago," Chuck replied. "He had been working on it since the 1980s. He got the original one out of me and gave the CIA a new one under the condition they would let me leave the Agency. But that night in the Intersect room changed all of that. We'll need him if we want to get this done."

"But he took off right after our wedding," Devon said. "How do we contact him?"

"Actually, I know how," Ellie replied.

Everybody looked at Ellie in surprise.

"Dad left you his number?" Chuck asked in amazement. "I did not expect him to do that."

"He didn't leave me a number; he left me a letter." Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope. "He told me only to open this if I ever got in trouble and needed his help. After what happened to us at the Buy More, I figured there was something important in here he wanted to tell me. But it was just a set of instructions on how to contact him. Can I borrow a laptop?"

"Sure," Jimmy replied. He retrieved his laptop and gave it to Ellie. She immediately brought up a web browser.

"How do you contact him?" Sarah asked.

"I log onto IMDb and go to the bulletin board for a particular movie," Ellie replied.

"Let me guess… _Tron_ ," Chuck said with a knowing glance.

"Exactly."

Chuck looked over her shoulder as she typed. "'DrEllieBean' is your handle?" he said with a laugh.

"Yes, it's my online name. Deal with it," she spat at him.

"Have him meet us at your apartment tomorrow night," Casey said. "You and Chuck and Sarah talk with him. The rest of us will watch the perimeter to make sure nobody crashes the party."

"OK." Ellie typed the correct phrases into a bulletin board message.

 _ **Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA  
May 26, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Stephen Bartowski drove up to the apartment complex. He wasn't sure why Ellie needed to talk to him barely a month after the wedding, so he was suspicious. Of course, being paranoid had kept him alive for many years, so he thought nothing of rigging his truck to blow up should anybody attempt to open it or take anything from it. He also had a 22 hidden on a spring-loaded holster inside of his sleeve nobody would see coming.

He walked up to Ellie's and Devon's door and knocked. To his surprise, Chuck answered.

"Dad, hi," Chuck said, giving him a hug.

"Son, I didn't expect to see you here," Stephen replied as he entered the apartment. He then saw Ellie and Sarah. He went right to Ellie and hugged her tightly.

"Ellie, so good to see you," he said warmly. "How was the honeymoon?"

"Wonderful, Dad," she replied. "But we have a problem, which is why I contacted you."

"What is wrong?" Stephen asked as he also gave Sarah a hug.

"This…will take a bit of explaining," Chuck said, gesturing for everyone to sit down. "You gave Bryce a new version of the Intersect."

Stephen nodded, although the thought did not delight him. "They made changes to the data architecture. I thought I had an ironclad deal with Beckman that she would leave you alone if I made it for the government. And then that agent who came for Bryce…"

Chuck exhaled. "Bryce was shot and killed before he could upload it. This group called the Ring captured us and was ready to kill us. Then…" Chuck fell silent.

"What?" Stephen insisted.

"Chuck uploaded the Intersect and saved our lives," Sarah answered. "He's had the new Intersect in him ever since."

"What?!" Stephen was upset to say the least. "Chuck, it wasn't designed for you. The Intersect I built was meant only for Bryce. If anybody else tried to use it, it would start to break down the synaptic pathways in their mind. They'd slowly go insane from all of the pain and eventually die! The Intersect has to be designed to fit a specific person, and they have to be capable of handling it!"

"But someone could handle it if it was designed for them?" Chuck asked.

Stephen nodded. "It would take time to create, but yes. Wait a minute. Please tell me you didn't remain with the CIA. After everything we did to get you out?"

Chuck shook his head. "After Ellie's wedding, Sarah and I took off, but General Beckman sent people out to find us. We tried to stay hidden, but let's face it, it's hard for us to hide being so famous. There's only one way to prevent us from being on the run forever."

"We're going to offer Beckman what she wants," Sarah continued. "She gets her Intersect, and the team is reunited with Chuck and I out of the spy business for good."

"But who is going to be…" Stephen started but quickly figured it out. "No, absolutely not," he said vehemently. "I almost cost Jimmy his life twenty-five years ago. You are not putting him through this again!"

"Actually, this was his idea," Chuck replied softly. "Can you do it, Dad?"

"Dad, please," Ellie pleaded. "We're in a lot of danger right now. Devon, Morgan, and I were attacked twice a week ago, and General Beckman's tried to arrest the entire team. This is the only way to fix all of this. We need your help."

Stephen sat back on the couch. The last thing he wanted to do was build yet another Intersect, and he sure as hell didn't want to put Jimmy through any more than he already did. But if Chuck uploaded the one meant for Bryce, then he would start suffering mental damage from it. He had to get it out of Chuck, and he would need government resources to pull it off successfully.

"When this is over, the list of things Beckman will owe me will be quite significant, too," Stephen said.

"Thanks, Dad," Chuck said as both Ellie and he hugged their father.

"We should get everyone over here and go over the plans."

"Uh, we're way ahead of you," Sarah said.

"What do you mean?"

From the kitchen, bedrooms, and other parts of the apartment, everybody else appeared.

Stephen looked in complete surprise at how much bigger the team was. "Is…there going to be a _Jen Burton_ movie next season?"

"Oh, we wish," Jimmy replied with a grin.

"So, how do you convince Beckman to do this?"

"We have a plan that contains my three favorite things," Casey replied. "Misdirection, firepower, and general nastiness."

"I like it already."

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – McLean, VA  
May 27, 2016  
6:30 PM EDT**_

General Beckman took the elevator down to the parking structure in the sub-basement where her two escorts were waiting for her. The three began to walk towards Beckman's government vehicle. One of them held the back door open for her, and she entered. The escort closed the door, and the two got ready to take their positions.

A masked individual came out of the shadows and fired tranq darts at both escorts, sending them to the ground. Beckman looked on in surprise and reached for the door handle. However, the masked person quickly pulled out a remote that locked both of her doors and raised the privacy screen, trapping her inside. The person then got into the driver's seat and began to drive towards the exit.

"Al, open the pod bay doors," Jimmy said as he maneuvered the car towards the exit.

"Hysterical," Alex grumbled as she snuck quietly towards the guard at the gate. She zapped him with a taser and opened the gate. Jimmy stopped the car to let her into the passenger's seat, and the two took off with Beckman trapped in the back.

They headed north on Interstate 495 towards Maryland. In the rear-view mirror, they spotted the two tail cars that always followed Beckman whenever she left the DNI. Almost certainly by now they realized Beckman was not taking her planned route, and they began to close the distance.

"Bring out the party poopers," Jimmy said over his radio.

Two cars sped at over 80 MPH towards the tail cars. Casey used his Crown Vic to swerve in front of one car while Carina used her Ferrari to cut off the other one. Ilsa and Cole leaned out of their respective vehicles and shot one of the tires on each car, slowing both tail cars down and force both of them to the shoulders. They then floored it to catch back up to Beckman's car.

Ten minutes later, Beckman's car pulled into an abandoned warehouse just outside of Rockville with Casey and Carina not far behind. Jimmy opened the door and then opened the back door of the vehicle, motioning with a gun for Beckman to exit. Jimmy and Alex led her to a seat in the middle of the warehouse where Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and Stephen were waiting for her.

"Are you people out of your minds?" Beckman yelled.

"According to my last psych profile…yes," Jimmy quipped.

"Admit it, General," Sarah began with considerable anger. "If we had told you the truth about what happened in the Intersect room that night, you'd never let Chuck leave."

"That's…" Beckman began, but the looks on everyone's faces made her conclude they wouldn't believe anything she said. "The Intersect is the most powerful tool we have ever had in our intelligence arsenal. And what Mr. Bartowski was able to do with it is beyond measure."

"You also changed my original design," Stephen retorted, who was as angry as Sarah. "And now this new Intersect could have cost my son his life!"

"You assured us it would work."

"Yeah, had Bryce Larkin uploaded it and had you not changed the data architecture!"

"We need the Intersect. It gives our government a significant edge. You think the danger ended with Fulcrum? Obviously it didn't."

"We know that," Ellie spat. "Our family was attacked twice, and the second time was by someone in your own damn department. Sarah and her team are the only reason you still have an Intersect!"

"Fortunately for you, we have a plan," Sarah said.

"What are you talking about?" Beckman asked.

"We'll give you a new Intersect," Stephen replied. "I'll work on an Intersect based on the way you reprogrammed the data structure and make it work properly."

"But who will receive it?"

"I will," Jimmy replied. Beckman turned to him. "I upload the new Intersect that Mr. Bartowski designs and we're back in business. But know this: the price is significant. There are going to be quite a few things we want. Chief among them is that you put the team back together and you let Chuck and Sarah walk away from the government scot-free. They never hear from you again. Is that clear?"

Beckman looked ready to scoff before Jimmy cut her off. "And before you say any sort of bullshit about refusing to be intimidated or bullied, just remember you did this to yourself. You threw out your best team when you didn't even know you had Ring agents in your very own department. I am quite certain everyone here will just be happy to walk away and live comfortably somewhere else in the world and let you deal with this. And you know damn well you can't handle the Ring without us."

"And to make sure you keep to your word," Stephen continued. "I've made an email detailing every last piece of this. How Sarah and everybody else are really spies, how the enemy has infiltrated our own government, how close they've come to taking over, and how you have refused to do anything to stop it. And that email will go out at 6AM each morning unless I'm there to cancel it."

Beckman quietly growled. She didn't like being pushed around like this but she had little choice. If they were telling the truth about the Intersect not being compatible with Chuck, it would only become a matter of time before he became useless. Plus, the Intersect was designed to be put into a trained agent, and Slade certainly qualified as one.

"Very well," Beckman said quietly.

"I'll need a copy of the Intersect data you had," Stephen said.

"We didn't keep any copies."

"Yeah, right," Jimmy growled. "Dry that one out and you can fertilize the lawn."

Beckman quietly growled. "I'll get to work on retrieving it. In the meantime, contact our IT people, Mr. Bartowski, and discuss what you need with them. As for the rest of you, there's a lot of work ahead if we're going to stop the Ring."

"Good," Sarah replied. "I can only relax for so long."

"Awww," Chuck whined.

"You did too good of a job relaxing me, sweetie," she purred, giving him a kiss.

"Ugh," Casey and Beckman grumbled at the same time.

 _ **Unknown Location  
May 29, 2016  
11:00 PM**_

A man stood in front of a table laid out in a semi-circle. The five individuals sitting at the table were quite displeased.

"You have made no progress in capturing Chuck Bartowski," the one in the center said to the man who was standing.

"I told you it was a bad idea to go after his family," the man replied. "Just because the team was broken up doesn't mean they stopped being spies. I sent six after them, but Agent Slade still took all of them out."

"Are Mr. Bartowski and Agent Walker still in Europe?" a person at the far left asked.

"I'm trying to find out now, but I have reason to believe they have returned to the United States. There have been rumors throughout the office they may have visited Beckman. If not them, then someone on their team. But I do know the team has expanded. At least three other agents, two from overseas, have been linked to the original group."

"And what about the Intersect data?"

"Supposedly it was destroyed, but I have a hard time believing there were no extra copies made. There were a high number of IT requests and reallocation of hours right before that night in the Intersect room."

"Find that data," someone just to the right of center ordered. "And don't come back without it."

The man exited the room. It felt a bit far-fetched there would be Intersect data saved that he hadn't found after a month. But Clyde Decker held the highest position in the DNI of any Ring agent, and he planned to put that to good use.

"We should come up with a contingency plan," a person to the left of center said. "Constantly underestimating Agent Walker and her team has cost us considerably."

The person in the center nodded. "Let's track down that former agent and show him the video. It is time for Daniel Shaw to know the truth about his wife's death."


	33. Let's Try This Again From the Top

_Hello, folks. This has been a 'be careful what you wish for' kind of two weeks. I've been working different jobs almost every day, and I'll be heading out of town next week as a favor to a friend of mine to help them with something. So if the chapter looks like my mind's a bit distracted, I do apologize. But I did manage to put quite a few Easter eggs in the chapter, even one for Big Mike. And a little pop culture referencing. Just remember when this is taking place. :-D_

 _I have to admit it's quite a balancing act now with so many people now in on the big secret. It's almost like I've skipped forward to Season 4 and am trying to meld parts of three different seasons into this story (and even had a season one reference in this)._

 _Hopefully I'll get the next chapter out on time but I can't make any guarantees. My time is about to go from crazy to completely insane. But I do hope you continue to enjoy the story and I hope you leave reviews. And I hope I don't have to say the NBC/Fake Empire material thing over and over, but you already know who created this wonderful universe. Now if only they'd give us a damn movie!_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Warner Brothers Studios – Burbank, CA  
May 29, 2016  
11:15 AM PDT**_

"My first guest you all know as the very talented star of _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_. It's always a good time when she's here, and she wanted to make up for missing her last appearance two months ago. Please welcome the beautiful Sarah Walker!"

The _Ellen_ audience jumped to their feet and started screaming as Sarah came out onto the stage to DJ Tony playing Jet's _Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is_. She walked up the steps and gave Ellen DeGeneres a big hug, which Ellen held just a bit longer than her average hug. The two ladies sat down.

"Hi there," Ellen said.

"That's quite a welcome. Thank you," Sarah replied with a smile to DJ Tony and the audience.

"It is. Tony, what was that? Why did you pick that song?"

"Hey, a lady who kicks ass for a living needs a kick-ass intro song," Tony replied, which got the audience cheering again.

"I would certainly not argue that," Ellen replied. "I originally thought of a Carpenters song for her entrance. Which is why they won't let me sit in the production meetings anymore."

The audience laughed at that as Ellen turned to Sarah. "So how have you been? You have recovered from your illness from a couple of months ago?"

"Yes, I have," Sarah responded confidently, grateful Chuck reminded her she ditched her last _Ellen_ appearance to assist in his rescue after Fulcrum took him prisoner while Alex Forrest ran the team. "Those spastic colons are not something you mess with."

A few members of the audience grimaced. "See? Right there!" Ellen exclaimed. "This is one of the most beautiful women in the world sitting next to me, and she's not allowed to have digestive problems like a normal person? I mean, a few bad tacos on my part and Portia's making me sleep on the couch!" That drew a laugh from the crowd. "But in fairness, the twelve tequila shots didn't help, either." Another laugh. "I'm just making that up. There were no tacos."

The crowd was roaring and very much into the interview. "So you've had a very interesting month," Ellen continued. "First you leave us with that big cliffhanger on the show of Lance McCall falling down the elevator shaft, and now you've been traipsing through Europe imitating your character in real life?"

Sarah laughed heartily. She never had to practice something more in her life. Thankfully Chuck and Morgan were good coaches. "Oh, come on. I can't really do all of those things they think I did. It was just coincidence I was in the same ballroom with Chuck when that incident occurred with the accountant. And they've already said that wasn't us in Paris; just someone who looked like us."

"Chuck…" Ellen tried out his name. "I think I like saying that better than Charles. He's more like a Chuck. Am I allowed to call him that?"

"If you're nice to him," Sarah replied with a grin.

"Shoot, then I'm out of luck with Chuck." That got the audience laughing again. "So things are going great with you."

"Yes, very much so. The last eight months have been some of the best I've ever had, both on the show and in real life."

"And you totally deserve it. You and your co-stars get along so well, they're like your family."

Sarah smiled at that. There was an understatement if she had ever heard one.

"They are. Carina's like a sister to me. Certainly we fight enough to be sisters." The crowd gave a laugh. "John's sort of the patriarch of the group. Of course, he's a bit older than the rest of us, and 'crazy uncle' just doesn't seem to fit him. Jimmy's the crazy uncle."

The crowd laughed again. "That I will agree with," Ellen said. "He's been on the show a few times. The reviews for _Mr. Wrong_ were less scary." Another big laugh from the crowd. "But he will do anything to entertain the audience…including dressing up as Freddie Mercury and lip-syncing."

"Oh!" Sarah pretended to be upset…and did a good job of it considering she really was upset. "Please tell me those Australian ladies aren't backstage waiting to surprise me again. I felt like such an idiot last time."

Ellen laughed. "No, they're not here. I promise."

"Phew. I'm glad of that. They were so wonderful and so funny. I felt totally out of my element."

"But hopefully you won't feel too much like an idiot today, because we brought out…"

Ellen reached behind the couch and pulled out a tablet computer. "…Heads Up!"

The crowd cheered as the video wall behind Sarah and Ellen displayed the game. "We've added a new set of questions for the app which you can purchase on iTunes that are all about _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_ and its cast. Are you up for giving it a try, Sarah?"

"I don't have a choice, do I," she replied with her well-practiced grin.

"Not even a little." Ellen smiled back. She tapped the tablet's screen and held it up to face Sarah. "Ready?"

Sarah exhaled deeply and nodded. The computer counted down. Three…two…one…

"OK, Duke Forrester used to be one of these…" Sarah started.

"Green Beret," Ellen answered and flipped the board down to get the next one.

"Jill Garrett pretended to be this guy's fiancé to get into his business dealings."

"Karl Stromberg?"

"Right." Ellen flipped the board. "Jen's first job in the government; they protect the President…"

"Secret Service."

"Jimmy went to school here. Big Ten, they wear purple, near Chicago…"

"Northwestern."

"OK, Jill and Jen had to pose as supermodels at this fashion show, we wore lingerie most of the episode…"

"Ahh, one of my favorites. Victoria's Secret."

"He played Lance's handler who taught him how to seduce a target…"

"Willian Shatner. And boy, does that explain a lot."

The crowd laughed, but Sarah kept going. "He used to play James Bond. He did a few episodes where he was the bad guy…"

"Roger Moore."

"Right. Supposedly, this actress stalked John Casey…"

"Me!" Ellen shouted excitedly.

The crowd went into hysterics. "She didn't, of course. She was Trinity in _The Matrix_ , kicked a lot of ass…"

The buzzer sounded, so Ellen didn't get to answer the question. The crowd applauded.

"Seven right, not bad," Ellen said proudly as the computer displayed all of the correct answers. She handed the tablet to Sarah. "And now guess whose turn it is?"

Sarah started to turn beet red. "Come on! I don't know anything about the show!"

"What do you mean? It's named for you!"

The audience started cheering to encourage Sarah. She could only think that Chuck, who was backstage at that moment, was having himself a huge laugh.

"OK," Sarah said tiredly. She tapped the tablet screen and held it up for Ellen to see. The computer counted down. Three…two…one…

"The town where you grew up," Ellen began.

Sarah froze briefly. She couldn't remember where her public bio said she was raised. "Calabasas, California," she said, hoping she was right. Ellen's smile indicated she did.

Sarah flipped the board. "Carina started in theater work here before the show," Ellen continued.

"London."

"John Casey went to school here. It's in New Jersey."

"Rutgers."

"No, the other big school. Not Princeton. Catholic?"

Sarah's eyes widened. She accidentally gave Casey's real school instead of the one in his bio.

"Seton Hall," a voice behind Sarah said.

She quickly turned when the crowd cheered. Chuck was right behind her.

"Go! Go!" Chuck prodded, meaning Sarah should flip to the next question, which she did.

"Actor Carina dated for four months," Ellen continued.

"Brad Pitt?" Sarah asked nervously.

The crowd laughed. "No, the new Captain Kirk," Ellen corrected.

"Chris Pine," Chuck answered for her.

"Jimmy sang this song on _The Tonight Show_ while imitating Al Pacino."

"Umm…" Sarah didn't have a clue.

"Carly Rae Jepsen, _Call Me Maybe_ ," Chuck replied, which made the crowed laugh even harder.

"When did you premiere?"

Sarah's was ready to panic. She looked at Chuck. "September 24th, 2010," Chuck said quickly to beat the buzzer. The crowd applauded as Chuck sat next to Sarah. She gave him a grateful kiss.

"You did well, Sarah," Ellen said. "Had a little help there, but…"

"He's wonderful," she replied, caressing Chuck's face. "Still, why did I think Carina dated Brad Pitt, of all people?"

"True," Chuck replied. "I mean, Angelina's never going to leave that guy. You would have been better off saying Casey's name."

The crowd laughed at that one. "So, will everybody be back for a season seven?" Ellen asked.

Sarah gave a little smile. She knew the answer but she couldn't give it. Certainly announcing she was leaving the show would be devastating to the public. Even she had to acknowledge her popularity around the world. But this is what she wanted. After so many years as an agent, the majority of which were spent in the public eye, she just wanted to find a quiet corner of the world and live happily with Chuck. The only thing she'd really miss was being with her three co-workers and friends.

"We'll see," she simply replied.

"OK, why does everybody do that?" Ellen whined. "Can't I get one star to come on here and totally spoil their show? Here, it's easy. On tomorrow's show, I tell a few jokes and interview a couple of celebrities." The crowd laughed at that.

"I'll be sure to watch," Chuck replied. "Right after I see that episode of _Three's Company_ where there's some kind of misunderstanding."

The crowd laughed again. "It is so great to see the two of you," Ellen said to wrap up the interview. "Do come back soon. Sarah Walker and Chuck Bartowski, everybody."

The three of them rose as the crowd cheered. Chuck and Sarah exchanged hugs with Ellen.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
May 29, 2016  
1:00 PM PDT**_

The team had relocated to the Honeymoon Suite at the hotel in order to conduct business. It may have been practical, given it was the largest suite the hotel had, but the irony was not lost on anybody that the team had sprouted a few couples since all of this began. Certainly Chuck and Sarah falling in love seemed inevitable, but nobody expected Casey, Carina, and Jimmy to find significant others, too. And with the big secret out, their four-person team had now become an even baker's dozen. But nobody was feeling overconfident about that. Everyone knew reuniting the team was the easy part. The real work was about to begin.

"Any lip-syncing today?" Jimmy asked with a grin as Chuck and Sarah opened the door to the suite.

"Nope," Chuck replied. "But Ellen did make Sarah play 'Heads Up!' with the new _Spy Girl_ question set."

Sarah shook her head. "And Chuck bailed me out on some of the questions."

"That's all?" Jimmy replied, not a little disappointed.

"Sorry, nothing more embarrassing than that."

Jimmy hit a few buttons on his smartphone. "Guess I just saved some room on my TiVo," he muttered in disappointment.

"We've got to get moving on this," Casey said sharply to get everyone back into focus. "We need to set up Mr. Bartowski somewhere he can work on a new Intersect and we have to get him the data."

"And I imagine work didn't take any time off while we were gone," Alex Forrest said. "I'm sure Beckman has a few missions for us to handle."

"This is actually an improvement," Carina said. "Usually with that bitch, we scratch her back and she stabs us in ours."

"Not this time," Stephen replied with ample determination. "She needs me to make this work, which means she damn well better give all of you everything that you want. I disappeared because I never wanted Chuck and Ellie involved in any of this. We complete this and we complete it right."

Ellie looked over her father's shoulder at what he was typing on his computer. "How does it work, Dad? I know the subject is shown an image filled with subliminal data, but what happens then? Does the Intersect imprint the information into the person's mind?"

"It does much more. The key is for the Intersect to control the synaptic pathways between short-term and long-term memory and also develop the trigger needed to access the information. You know how you'll hear an old song and it will remind you of a date you were on or you take in a particular scent and it reminds you of a vacation you may have taken somewhere? Your brain remembers everything that's inputted through your senses, but with most things, it won't register with you consciously. The Intersect was designed to control how you stored the information you saw and how you retrieved it. But it has to be tailor-made to your unique cranial network. And there's so much information, it can be very dangerous to the person."

"That's why Chuck can't handle the one he has?"

Stephen nodded. "Had I designed the new Intersect for Chuck, it may have worked. And had Beckman not changed the data architecture, it likely would have worked for Bryce."

"Bryce said the new Intersect was too powerful," Chuck said somberly, remembering Bryce's last words to him. "He told me to destroy it."

Stephen exhaled. "But you didn't. I understand why, of course. You used it to save everybody. But you can't keep this one in you much longer. We have to get it out."

"What about the one for Jimmy?" Ellie asked. "You said the first time you did it, you almost killed him."

"Graham forced the Intersect project through the first time around. I kept telling him more testing was needed, but he didn't care. He didn't even care what happened to Jimmy. "Let this thing kill him. We'd be doing him a favor." was what he said. And it almost did kill him. They suspended the project and did a massive cover-up."

Chuck and Ellie could see their father getting worked up again over what had transpired twenty-five years ago. "I wasn't exactly crying my eyes out when I found out he was killed by that Trojan Horse Fulcrum sent," Stephen said quietly. "This time it will be different. We do this right and on my timetable. No one else's. With the technology available now, I can design an Intersect Jimmy's mind can handle. And Beckman better not change a damn thing."

"Would it be OK if I stayed around and assisted you in your work?" Ellie said.

Stephen turned to her. "I thought you'd never ask," he replied with a smile, pulling her into a hug.

The computer beeped. General Beckman was ready. Sarah grabbed the remote and initiated a videoconference.

"Mr. Bartowski, I have sent word to my IT department to be ready for a meeting with you in the next few days," Beckman said. "I've kept your identity secret per your request. Only a few people will ever know who you are and they'll relay the tasks to their people."

"General, it's best to keep this project far away from prying eyes," Stephen replied. "We need a place where the Ring would never suspect we were building a new Intersect."

"We need a secured location," Casey said. "Some place where we can hide the energy consumption and bandwith. And also to be able to keep a close watch on the place."

"Or…" Morgan replied. "What about setting up in a place that already uses lots of electricity and bandwith? Kind of like, you know, hiding in plain sight? Saves time in building it, too."

"What are you thinking, Morgan?" Chuck asked.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
May 30, 2016  
10:00 AM PDT**_

"This is a matter of national security. Ordinarily we would never attempt something like this, but you know what's at stake. You're a former Naval officer, so we're relying on your integrity and patriotism to protect our secret. The fate of our country lies in the balance."

"Well…uh…respectfully, Colonel Casey, I was only a cook." Big Mike was hesitant. "Did two tours on the _USS Alabama_."

"But you know the drill," Casey replied. "Imagine how bad they want the new Intersect if they were willing to kill all of you to get it. You saw what happened yourself. You even had to save Slade's life from that Ring agent."

"That I did." He grabbed his baseball bat and gave it a little kiss. "What do you need me to do?"

"We're putting you back in charge of the store, and Grimes will be your assistant manager. The two of you are to make sure everything operates as normal and nobody gets curious about the lab we're making in the back for Mr. Bartowski to do his work."

"OK, can do. But what if someone shows up like they did when they almost killed us? Is there a special number we can call?"

"Way ahead of you. We're giving you two agents to guard the store. Their job is to blend in and keep everyone in line. Especially those two morons at the Nerd Herd desk."

Casey rose from his chair and motioned for Big Mike to come with him. "Who are they?" Big Mike asked.

Right then, Cole entered the store in khaki pants and a green Buy More polo shirt. Just behind him, Ilsa sauntered in wearing a white Oxford shirt that was definitely a size or two too small on her and a short black miniskirt. She also had on a gray Nerd Herd tie. Compared to how Ilsa was dressed, Anna used to look like a nun.

Big Mike looked in wide-eyed shock. "You didn't have anybody…like…you HAVE seen who works here. Haven't you, Colonel? I hope those two don't mind all the customers that will mob them!"

"Can't have Walker or Miller or Slade work undercover here."

Big Mike nodded. "Good point."

"Mike Tucker, this is Cole Barker and Ilsa Trinchina," Casey said, introducing the two. "The three of you and Grimes will work together to guard the Bartowskis and keep an eye on the store while he builds the two Intersects. Beckman will have her IT people in here tomorrow to set up what Mr. Bartowski needs. Meantime, the four of you get the other Buy More employees back and ready to open the store in two days."

"Not a problem, Case," Cole replied. He looked down at his outfit and grimaced. "Somehow, this still isn't the most ridiculous thing I've ever worn."

"Wish I could say that," Ilsa muttered in frustration.

"Works for me," Casey replied, eyeing Ilsa up and down, which certainly alleviated her depression.

 _ **Bel Air, CA  
May 30, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

"OK, now I know why Casey is always grumpy. He has to sit out here while you four play dress-up?"

Alex was not having fun sitting in the surveillance van. She wasn't the expert on the surveillance systems, and she regretted asking Jimmy for lessons yesterday instead of Chuck. It wasn't that Jimmy wasn't a good teacher, it was just that Alex had a trouble concentrating on his instructions, courtesy of a few unplayed fantasies in her mind left over from her college days. A round or two of student-teacher roleplaying, and Jimmy couldn't even remember his own name. Not her most professional afternoon, but it was certainly a fun one.

"Hey, when we infiltrate a grade school auditorium full of soccer moms, he's our guy," Carina replied.

Alex rolled her eyes. There were no soccer moms anywhere near the mansion that Chuck and Sarah were entering. After Stephen assured everybody Chuck was safe for now if he could keep his flashes to a minimum, the four headed to the mansion of Victor Basta. He was heavily invested in Roark Industries but somehow managed to divest out before the government took over the company in the wake of Roark's murder. Although the idea was to keep the huge computer company propped up until a new Board of Directors could be installed, Beckman suspected that Basta was tipped off and tried to recoup investitures made by the Ring. Beckman hoped the team could find out how much Basta had on his computers and if he had a direct link to the Ring. What he knew could get the CIA back on track in taking them down.

"Actually, I'm OK with being out here," Jimmy replied. "Chuck and Sarah get to be mobbed by the crowd, and we get to sneak in upstairs and do actual spy stuff. I hate being in public."

"Oh, please," Sarah retorted over her earpiece, her BS detector reading maximum. "You always ham it up for the crowd. You are such an attention-seeker."

Jimmy shrugged. "That's just an act. I'm good at faking it."

"So am I," Alex quipped. Jimmy's eyes widened and he stared at Alex. "Just messing with you," she said with a grin, flicking the tip of her tongue at his lips.

"I take back what I said about being OK out here," Jimmy groaned.

"Where are you two?" Carina asked to get everybody back on task.

"Still meeting the guests," Chuck said quietly, turning away from the crowd. "It's just like we predicted: we're a hit."

"Have you found the mansion's network access point?" Jimmy asked.

"Looking for one."

Chuck and Sarah continued to walk around the party. Chuck finally found his target: a small port behind the entertainment center in one of the rooms just off the main hallway. Sarah kept an eye out while Chuck slipped underneath and installed the wireless router designed to intercept the mansion's network and transfer it to Jimmy outside.

"OK, linked in," Jimmy replied. He started to access the network. "Aaah, hell."

"What's wrong?" Sarah whispered.

"I was afraid they'd have this. Their wireless network is accessed through an external port outside the mansion with a two-megabyte encryption protocol and the rest of the house has wireless shielding. Sort of similar to a signal blocker for mobile phones."

"And for those of us who don't speak nerd, Jimmy?" Alex brusquely asked.

"We have to get in there and get the information ourselves."

Just then, the door to the TV room started to open. Sarah quickly looked back and forth. She grabbed Chuck and threw him over her hip, sending him on his back. She quickly unzipped the back of her dress and jumped on him, kissing him hard. She started to work on his pants as a guard stepped in.

"What are you two doing in here?" the guard demanded.

Sarah looked up with a very don't-mess-with-me glare. "A month in Europe and a bear-skinned rug. Do the math," she growled.

She went back to making out with Chuck as if the guard wasn't there. Two seconds later, the very shocked guard wasn't there.

Sarah looked up and breathed a sigh of relief. She got up from Chuck and fixed her dress. She then reached down to pull Chuck to his feet. "Sorry," she demurred. "I had to think of something fast."

"Yeah, no…no problem," Chuck stammered, still in shock. He then looked down. "OK, that's going to be a problem."

Sarah turned and looked at what Chuck was looking at. She sported the biggest grin on her face. "I'll fix that later," she purred, licking his lips with the tip of her tongue.

In the van, Alex stared at the monitor. "Has…she had to do that before?" she asked cautiously.

Carina only gave a shrug. "But not with…" Alex pointed an unsteady finger at Jimmy, but Carina only shrugged again.

"No, she didn't," Jimmy growled in exasperation. He went to the back of the van to get the rappelling equipment.

"What are you doing?" Carina asked.

"How else are we going to get the information?" Jimmy asked, holding up his piton gun and grabbing a vest. "It's on the second floor."

Carina huffed and opened a garment bag hanging next to her. She pulled out a dress and a tuxedo. "Why must you always do things the stupid, crazy way?" she demanded, holding up the attire.

Five minutes later, Carina and Jimmy exited the van and walked up the driveway to the mansion. The guard watching the door and taking names was shocked.

"Miss Miller, Mr. Slade, we weren't expecting you to be here," the guard said in surprise.

"Well, we heard from our friends there was a really great party going on, and we were kind of hoping to join the fun," Carina said in a throaty voice, opening up her seduction playbook.

"W-w-well, I'm not really supposed to let anyone in…"

"Oh, we won't get in the way, baby. Promise." Carina slid her hand up and down the guard's arm. "We just heard Mr. Basta is a big fan of the show and we wanted to thank him personally."

"That's…that's nice of you, but…"

"We won't stay for long." Carina was well within the guard's personal space. "And afterwards, I was planning to go out with some of my Hollywood friends. They love to party. We'll be out all night, but we could certainly handle inviting a few more people to join us."

"Ummm…" the guard looked towards the main hall of the mansion. "Well, the party only has an hour or so left, so sure."

"Thanks, sweetie," Carina replied, gently stroking the guard's cheek with her finger as she took Jimmy's arm and entered the mansion.

"Good, halfway home," Jimmy replied over everyone's earpieces. "Chuck, Sarah, can you run interference for us?"

"We'll have to," Sarah replied. "You need everyone's attention drawn away from the stairs."

"The Loire Valley Shuffle, Sarah?" Carina asked.

Sarah looked around and nodded. "It's our best option."

"Hope you have fun on _TMZ_ tomorrow," Jimmy replied with a grin.

"Why? What's going on?" Chuck asked nervously.

"Just follow my lead," Sarah replied.

She took Chuck's hand and led him into the crowd as Carina and Jimmy walked along the perimeter, quickly shaking hands with anybody who recognized them. Sarah got to the middle, snagged a flute of champagne from a passing server, and waved it wildly in the air.

"I love this man!" she yelled…and tripped. She held tightly onto Chuck's hand and spun into him to stop from falling, who got wise to her plan and caught her.

"Sweetie…sweetie," Chuck replied, nervously looking around. "I love you, too. Maybe it's time…"

"This man is so wonderful!" Sarah shouted to the crowd, although slurred might have been a more accurate description as she continued her drunken display. "He is the sweetest…nicest…guy!"

Several guards started to head towards them, including the one guarding the stairwell. Carina and Jimmy quickly ascended.

Sarah wrapped her arms around Chuck and pulled herself up on him. "Want to see what I did to him in Lisbon?"

"OK, sweetie!" Chuck gently pulled her off of him before the guards got to them. "Time to get you home."

He held onto Sarah and guided her to the main entrance as security walked behind them to make sure they actually left.

Upstairs, Carina kept watch while Jimmy attached a device to Basta's computer to download its files.

"How are you two doing?" Sarah asked as Chuck and she made their way back to the van.

"Just about done," Jimmy replied. "I see some network connections to offsite servers on Basta's computer. I might be able to get around the encryption if I have enough time.

The door suddenly opened. "Halt!" a guard shouted.

Carina whipped out her tranq gun and fired. The guard fell to the floor.

"You don't now," Carina replied. "I used the twilight dart on him so he won't remember us being here."

Jimmy nodded. "But he'll be awake in five minutes. Thank God this computer had one of those new solid state drives. Hackers thought it was Christmas morning when those hit the market."

Carina and Jimmy heard the beep from Jimmy's portable drive indicating it was done. He put it in his pocket and the two went to the door. Four more guards were heading up the stairs and would see the unconscious guard. They quickly went to the balcony.

"You still brought that?" Carina asked as Jimmy loaded his piton gun.

"When does anything we do go according to plan?" Jimmy replied with a tired sigh as he fired at a ledge just above them. Carina held onto him as he jumped off the balcony and dropped to the ground on his attached harness.

"We're on our way," he said to Chuck, Sarah, and Alex. "And Carina, you can get off of me anytime now."

"You're still no fun," she pouted as she got down from straddling Jimmy.

"So, you and Jimmy never had to do anything compromising on a mission," Alex said to Sarah.

"Nope. Never," Sarah replied.

Alex paused. "I probably should have asked the same question about him and Carina."

Sarah scrunched in her chair. "Maybe."

"Nothing ever happened with Carina and me, either," Jimmy growled, clearly pissed off at this point. "Christ, can I go back to being a pathetic loser now?"

Sarah got on the phone to Beckman to inform her of their success.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
June 1, 2016  
10:00 AM PDT**_

Cole and Ilsa took their spots on the sales floor as Big Mike and Morgan opened the doors. The Buy More decided to have a Grand Re-Opening sale following the store being closed for two weeks. They explained to the employees and the press that the store had to be closed in order to replace the gas lines under the store and that Emmett decided to transfer to the Buy More in Anchorage to "get away from it all."

"You OK?" Morgan asked Cole.

Cole swallowed hard. "Never thought I'd be undercover selling washing machines and big-screen tellys."

"Relax. Now you're in my area of expertise." Cole gave him a look. "Would you rather be Ilsa right now?"

Cole glanced over to see Ilsa trying to deal with a long line of customers, mostly high-school boys who never saw someone like her at the Nerd Herd desk. Not to mention, Jeff and Lester were being their typical useless over there.

"Quite," Cole replied, conceding the point.

Morgan turned to see a number of women heading in Cole's direction and ignoring the other salespeople.

"Time to turn on the charm," Morgan said to him. "I'll check on the rest of the store."

The women gathered around Cole in a semi-circle staring dreamily at him.

"Can I interest anyone in a new refrigerator?" he said timidly.

~/^\~

Stephen typed away at his computer as Ellie kept watch over his shoulder. Stephen had to give the government credit: he didn't think they could get his lab set up so quickly. But he had everything he needed in what used to be Big Mike's office. It was the one room that was sealed off from the rest of the store, no doubt why Big Mike liked it for so long. As Morgan correctly predicted, they were able to add a few servers in the room and had little trouble accessing the city's power grid to provide the necessary electricity or setting up the required network bandwith.

"I'm setting up the outlines for the program," Stephen explained. "This is the basic algorithm for the Intersect program. Once I have this set up, I'll need two things."

"The Intersect data Beckman wants to install and a workup on Jimmy's brain."

Stephen nodded. "Can you handle the second part?"

"We have a neuroimaging center at the hospital. The techs and staff who run it are amazing, but how do we justify scanning a seemingly healthy person?"

Stephen paused. "Tell them the insurance company requires it. Tell them the show wants Jimmy to do a few more dangerous stunts next season but they won't insure him unless he has all of these tests to make sure he can handle it."

"That might work," Ellie replied. "I'll get on it. Devon can give me a hand. He knows one of the doctors on that floor."

"Good. Now all we need is for Beckman to hand us the Intersect data."

"When will it get here?"

"Hopefully by later today or tomorrow."

Ellie sat back in her chair and stared out into space for a moment. "Two weeks ago, everything was so different. I got married, I thought Chuck had found the girl of his dreams…and I pestered the hell out of the two of them to stay together." She laughed gently at that. "But now, all of us…we're in the middle of this big fight…and…nobody is who they said they were…"

"I know," Stephen replied gently. "I am responsible for this. I thought…I thought I was protecting you and Chuck by staying away. But I was wrong. Family is everything, however you define your family. And if you want to protect the people you love, you don't run away. You fight for them. You do whatever it takes to make things right. I'm just grateful you didn't have to learn that lesson the hard way like I did. You fight for what's right. You protect your family. So does Chuck, Sarah, all of these people do."

Stephen looked down at the ground. "I owe it to everybody to make this work. Especially you and Chuck. You two are the best things to ever happen to me."

"Thanks, Dad," Ellie replied, giving him a hug.

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – McLean, VA  
June 1, 2016  
9:30 PM EDT**_

A figure went down the elevator to the basement. Before exiting, they hit a button on their smartphone to disable the security cameras. They walked down to the IT office where they knew a lot of work was being done.

"What's your progress?" the person asked the IT technician.

"We got the data that General Beckman requested a couple of days ago." The tech held up a portable drive. "We're ready to transfer it."

"Excellent," was the reply from Clyde Decker. He then took out a silenced revolver and shot the technician. He took the drive out of the dead technician's hand and placed it in his coat pocket. He walked back to the elevator and took it down to the parking garage. He had no idea what Beckman's reasoning was to gather this data, but it likely had to do with the Intersect.

He got to his car and attached the drive to a scanning device. He was quite surprised. The drive could hold almost ten terabytes of information and it was almost completely full. He started the engine and drove towards the exit, happy to deliver to the Ring what appeared to be the data for the Intersect.

 _ **Venice, Italy  
June 2, 2016  
1:00 PM CEST**_

The man walked along one of the canals in a haze. He knew he had to get outside every now and again for his own sanity, but even the beauty of Venice couldn't soothe the rage he felt inside. The same rage he had felt for years.

As he turned the corner around one of the buildings, someone knocked him out from behind. They tied his wrists behind his back and put a bag over his head. Two strong sets of hands carried him to a nearby car and drove for an hour, making plenty of twists and turns just in case the man gained consciousness.

They pulled into a church and led him to the back of the sacristy. Behind a statue of the Virgin Mary, they pulled open a secret door and led him down the steps, depositing him in the middle of a room and removing the bag and ropes on his wrists.

"Mr. Shaw," a voice called out from the darkness. They got no response. "Mr. Shaw," the voice said more forcefully.

Daniel Shaw stirred awake. He then stood up, unable to see anything outside of the center of the room where he stood. "Who are you?"

"We are here to provide you some answers."

"What do you mean?"

"We know who killed your wife, Evelyn."

"What do you mean?"

He got silence in return, but an image showed on a screen he didn't know was there.

"It can't be," he whispered in shock.

This had to be a joke. The image was of actress Sarah Walker.


	34. Mad As Hell

_Hello there. I apologize for being a week late, but I spent last week out of town babysitting my friend's kids and it got interesting a couple of times. It took a bit out of me, but I did try to get some writing done while I was out there and got the rest of the chapter in the past two days. I tried my best with it and I hope you like the results. Also I was caught up in some baseball thing going on, but I guess it's because of where I live. :-D_

 _I'm trying my best to keep everyone involved and try to keep up the comedy where I can. Of course, we're going into some serious plotlines right now, and I am also trying my best to balance out the different chapters so all the characters get involved. Not sure if I'm pulling that off, but I'm certainly trying. The bad news is, with Chuck no longer on Netflix, it's hard to go back and review episodes. My Chuck DVDs are in storage. I'll try to see how many of them are on my old laptop and get them from there, but I'm not optimistic._

 _Also, I've been trying to read other stories, and I must say some of them keep me inspired to write this one. I've almost caught up on **The Trapped Assassin** by SarahsSupplyCloset and I'm also waiting for the next chapter of **Chuck vs the Island** by Sir Chucky. I even asked Sir Chucky how he gets so many reviews, but he didn't have a good answer. Obviously he's a great writer, so that's a big reason why._

 _As always, the parts that aren't mine belong to NBC and Fake Empire Productions. Please make sure to leave reviews._

 _Thanks, and GO CUBS!_

* * *

 _ **Venice, Italy  
June 2, 2016  
2:00 PM CEST**_

An image showed on a screen he didn't know was there. "It can't be," he whispered in shock.

This had to be a joke. The image was of actress Sarah Walker.

"Whoever you are, this is not funny," Daniel Shaw spat.

"This is no joke," the voice replied. "Sarah Walker murdered your wife."

"You're telling me someone who plays a spy on television murdered my wife." Shaw shook his head and laughed. "Yeah, thanks for trying to make me laugh by picking the worst way possible."

The screen then changed to surveillance footage of Sarah taking on a group of four agents by herself with a dazzling display of punches and kicks.

"This isn't from the show?" Shaw asked, a little stunned.

"No. And neither is this."

The footage changed to Sarah's team fighting their way out of an enemy stronghold freeing a dozen hostages…and quite successfully.

"Whoever you are, you have a sick sense of humor," Shaw said as his anger increased. "You're trying to tell me all four of those actors are actual spies? Sarah, John Casey, Carina Miller, Jimmy Slade…they're all real agents?"

Shaw got silence in return. The video image then changed to something that shook Shaw to his core.

"Happy birthday, sweetie."

Shaw witnessed the video he took of his wife, Evelyn, who had just given him a video camera for his birthday over a dozen years ago. "How did you find this?" he whispered in shock.

He got no reply, but the video changed to surveillance footage on a darkened Prague street. Evelyn walked down the pathway looking back and forth as if she was expecting someone. She quickly turned but fell to the ground from being shot. The image replayed from a wider angle showing the person who shot her as she turned around.

The video replayed a third time. This time, the image zoomed in on the person who fired the shot.

"NOOOOOO!" Shaw screamed as he saw the face of Sarah Walker in the surveillance. He dropped to his knees, unable to keep himself together.

A dart whistled out of the darkness and struck Shaw in the neck. He passed out.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
June 2, 2016  
6:00 AM PDT**_

The team rushed into the conference room when they received the call from General Beckman. The news could not have been good if she was calling at this hour.

"We have a situation," Beckman replied, which the team knew meant something nasty had hit the fan…hard. "One of our IT people was found shot to death last night in the DNI. They were preparing the Intersect data to transfer to Mr. Bartowski. We have to assume the Ring now has a copy of it."

"Someone in the DNI did this?" Sarah asked in shock. "Any guesses as to whom?"

Beckman shook her head. "There's no way to know. The video surveillance in the computer lab was disabled before the perpetrator went in. Every ID registered in the building at the time wouldn't have had access to that lab in the first place."

"Whoever shot them must have had the ability to erase their info from the databases that register ID card swipes at the security gates," Casey said. "It has to be someone on the top level. Someone with access."

"We're going through every personnel file we have right now, but that still leaves us too many suspects. And getting the data back is our first priority."

"Is the original data still on our servers?" Carina asked.

"Yes, it is. And it's encoded, so whoever stole it will need to break through Mr. Bartowski's encryption first. We can continue as planned, but clearly we do not know who we can trust. I want Agents Walker and Casey to accompany Chuck to the DNI. The three of you will download a new copy yourselves and deliver it to Stephen Bartowski personally."

"Okay," Chuck replied. He was nervous given the sudden turn of events, but Sarah gently squeezing his hand out of sight of everybody certainly eased his discomfiture.

"Agents Miller, Slade, and Forrest, get that stolen data back," Beckman continued. "By any means necessary."

"Got it," Forrest replied.

"We also have to increase our presence at the Buy More to protect Mr. Bartowski and Dr. Woodcomb. Agents Barker and Trinchina, bring in people who are completely from the outside and have no direct link to any agency. Only people you know and trust. Make sure they blend in. And they are not to know who or what they are guarding, only that they are to provide you support. You two are in charge over there. Keep Mr. Tucker and Mr. Grimes in the loop on this so they can help you."

"We'll get to work on that," Cole replied.

"Move fast, people," Beckman commanded. "The Ring is playing hardball, and you're our heavy bats."

She terminated the link.

"We'll ready the jet to fly to D.C.," Sarah said. "But we need leads and we need them right now."

"We still have the files from Basta's mansion," Jimmy replied. "Maybe we can pour over those with Chuck's dad. He encrypted the data for Beckman; he should recognize where they may have put the code. Hopefully time is on our side with this."

"But why just steal the code?" Ilsa asked. "Why didn't whoever did this wipe the CIA's servers? That would be the easy way out for them."

"There's two possibilities. Either they couldn't or they didn't care that we kept it."

"Or both," Alex replied. Everyone turned to her. "This was a smash-and-grab job. Otherwise I would have forced the tech to wipe the files off the servers before shooting them. Whoever did this had the ability to wipe their digital fingerprints but no time for anything else. They were on a clock to deliver the data to someone."

Everyone looked at each other. _The Ring_ went through everyone's minds. "The Ring is still trying to build an Intersect of their own," Chuck said nervously, which sent a chill through the entire room.

"Makes sense," Casey said. "They can't get to you or your father, so they're going to do this themselves. Stealing the data is the easy way rather than what they tried before at the drive-in."

"Then assuming it was an inside job, you can't just walk in and download a new copy," Jimmy said to Chuck, Sarah, and Casey. "Otherwise the Ring gets tipped off. You have to sneak in and erase any evidence you were there, just like this person did. Nobody can know about this, not even Beckman's own people."

Casey gave a grunt of disappointment and switched out his Sig Sauers for a pair of tranq guns. "Hate tranqing people. Just not as fun."

"Casey, you have to play nice with the other kids," Jimmy admonished with a smile. "We'll handle things here. You three get going."

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey gathered their gear and headed out of the hotel. Chuck gave a quiet laugh.

"Wow, Jimmy really is different these days," he said. "I can't believe all it took was Alex being attracted to him."

"Could have saved us three years of aggravation if you just shtupped him when we met," Casey growled quietly to Sarah.

"Oh, knock it off," she snapped back. "I would never do something like that, especially not with a partner." Both Chuck and Casey gave her a weird look. "Anymore," she added with a snarl.

Casey gave a little grunt of amusement while Chuck tried his best not to laugh as the three got to their car to head to the jet.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
June 2, 2016  
10:30 AM PDT**_

Stephen Bartowski sat with Ellie, Carina, Jimmy, and Alex at one of the computers going over the information they obtained from Victor Basta's mansion, looking for any sort of link to the current whereabouts of the Ring.

"There's a lot of information here," Stephen said. "Nothing that can link me to the data so far."

"Can they break through your encryption?" Carina asked.

"Given enough time and talent, they could. And we have to assume they have the talent."

"What about looking for where they could house the Intersect room?" Ellie said. "They'd have to keep that a secret, wouldn't they?"

Stephen nodded. "I'll do a search for any property they have using enough electricity and bandwith to house one."

Stephen modified the search he was performing on Basta's files. After a few moments, a list of possibilities came up.

"That narrowed things down, but we still have twelve possibles," he said. "And you can't check all twelve because they'll set off the alarms if they spot you."

"We have to get it right on the first try," Alex said in agreement.

"Coffee, anyone?"

Everyone turned to see Morgan with a large carafe of coffee and several coffee cups.

"Morgan, you really shouldn't be back here," Jimmy said tiredly. "Your job is out in the store."

"Everything's cool," he replied. "There's only a couple of customers. Cole and Ilsa said they have four people coming in the next two hours. They'll talk to them."

He put the carafe down and started pouring cups. "What are you doing right now?"

"Trying to find where the Ring might have the Intersect data," Stephen replied. "We have to get it back before they're able to decrypt it."

Stephen accessed satellite recon and ground surveillance to start scanning the twelve possible locations as the others sipped on the coffee Morgan provided.

"Nothing looks out of the ordinary on any of these," Carina replied.

"Wait, what was that?" Morgan asked.

Stephen went back to the previous surveillance camera overlooking a warehouse area. "It's a construction site," he told Morgan. "There are several of those in the area."

Morgan pointed to the monitor. "What about those construction workers? I mean, there's four of them and they're all walking around looking busy. What happened to one guy doing all the work and the other three just standing there?"

Stephen frowned and accessed a different surveillance camera in the area. He zoomed in on one of the workers. They watched the worker turn towards the others.

"Glock 17," Alex said quickly, pointing at the monitor. "Hidden under his construction vest. We found them."

"Nice catch again, Morgan," Jimmy said before turning to Carina and Alex. "Let's move."

The three quickly left the office and went out the back of the Buy More.

 _ **Hospital de Santa Maria – Lisbon, Portugal  
June 2, 2016  
6:00 PM WEST**_

Daniel Shaw slowly awakened to find himself in what looked like a hospital room. He shook his head clear and attempted to get up, only to find himself handcuffed to the bed. He quickly looked around the room.

"Looking for something with which to pick your handcuffs? Surely you realize this is real life and not a movie with plot conveniences around every corner."

Shaw turned to see a man in a sharp suit enter the room. "Who are you?" he asked the man.

"Who I am is not relevant," the man replied. "But how we can help each other is."

"What do you mean?"

"I can only imagine the pain you've been through over the last decade, Daniel. Your need for closure. Your need for revenge."

Shaw sat there in silence. "Tell me you don't desire revenge," the man said to him. "The woman who took away the love of your life? Who murdered her and became one of the most beloved people in the world? Where is the justice in that?"

"What do you want from me?" Shaw said quietly.

"Let's discuss what I'll give you. After all, Sarah Walker is no ordinary agent. She's the best in the CIA. And the people she works with are just as good. But you have the motivation. We have the resources and manpower you'll need, which we will provide you in order to eliminate her and her friends. And after it's done, we'll provide a nice quiet life for you wherever you wish. You may live out your days in peace and comfort."

"And what do you want in return?"

The man held up a tablet computer. "We want this man. And we want him alive."

Shaw looked at the picture. "That's Walker's boyfriend. Charles Carmichael."

"Chuck Bartowski, actually. Our organization has a…vested interest in him. You bring him to us, and you make sure Agent Walker and her friends are dead. Give it some thought."

The man pulled out a tranq gun and shot Shaw, who fell back on the bed again.

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – McLean, VA  
June 2, 2016  
11:00 PM EDT**_

Casey entered the van situated just outside of the gate leading into the building.

"Are we up and running?" he asked Chuck.

"We're good," Chuck replied. "We're tapped into the DNI's security system. I just need to access the right distribution point and overlay the video for the surveillance."

Casey sat in the chair next to Chuck as Sarah readied her tranq guns. "OK, we're there," Chuck said. You have control, Case." Chuck moved away from the computer and put on a flak jacket similar to the one Sarah was wearing.

"Remember, I can get you into the building, but you're on your own after that," Casey said. "You'll have to get through the second and third-level security systems."

"Got it," Sarah replied. She opened the back of the van. "Let's go, Chuck."

The two exited the van and ran quickly to the back of the DNI, Casey having disabled the ground motion sensors. "I'm surprised," Chuck said to her.

"About what?" Sarah asked.

"You spent so much of the last eight months telling me to stay in the van and out of danger and look at what we're doing now. I'm surprised you're so calm about it right now."

"That's because I'm not calm about it. I'm scared to death right now."

Chuck was taken aback. "Then you hide it very well."

Sarah exhaled. "I'm putting the man I love right in the line of fire. I don't care how good of a person you are or how much the Intersect did for you, I'm still going to be afraid of you getting hurt. My only comfort is I have the best people in the world helping me through this."

Chuck gave her a warm smile. "That you do have." He gave her a little kiss. "And we have the best spy in the world leading us."

Sarah looked at him and drew solace from that smile, that look of confidence he was giving her. All the apprehension, the doubt he used to feel was gone. And that gave her an even greater feeling of peace. She reached over and returned his kiss.

"Can we get back to work?" Casey growled in impatience. "You two are making me sick."

Chuck rolled his eyes. "God, Case. When you saw _Armageddon_ , were you rooting for the asteroid?"

Sarah shook her head and smiled as she readied her piton gun. Chuck looked at his and began to flash, getting the techniques he would need to use it. He winced as he fired at the top of the building. Sarah did the same, and both activated their motorized winches. Unlike his night at Roark's mansion, Chuck easily ascended the wall with Sarah, eventually making it up to the roof.

They ducked behind an air vent. "We're on the roof, Case," Sarah said quietly.

"Disabling the cameras," he replied. "Clear to the door."

Chuck and Sarah immediately ran to the door for roof access. Sarah took a long metal strip and jimmied the door open. Chuck placed a sensor on the door's alarm to keep it from going off as they pulled the door open. They entered the top floor of the DNI and quickly went to the elevators. Chuck placed a specialized plastic sheet against the handprint scanning pad to call for the elevator. After a moment, the doors opened.

"OK, they don't skimp on security in this place," Chuck said. "I'm guessing that's not simply a numbered keypad and you can hit 1-2-3-4-5 to move this thing."

Sarah pressed a button on the security pad to activate it. "A hexadecimal keypad combined with an RGB. We have to get the right numbers, letters, and colors. That's a billion combinations."

She started to look for a way to override it. "Sarah, I can do this in two seconds if it's in the Intersect," Chuck said.

"I don't want you flashing," she replied. "You heard your father, the damage your Intersect can cause. Scaling a building is easy; this would be hard."

"But if we get the data back, then I won't have this in me very long. It'll be fine, I promise."

Sarah looked at him for a moment before giving a long exhale. "OK, fine. But I'm taking you out of here if it gets too hard for your mind to handle."

She stepped to the side and Chuck studied the keypad. He began to flash, seeing specs of the system and the correct combination to punch in."

He growled as the pain hit. "Chuck!" Sarah exclaimed, grabbing him.

"It's OK, it's OK," he reassured her as he punched in the correct combination. "It's like the next morning after Morgan's infamous death punch at our Halloween party."

The elevator began to descend to the basement. "The hard part is over," Chuck said. He got out the USB device Jimmy and he modified. "We could make so much money with one of these if we sold them in the Buy More."

"Are you sure nobody will find that?" Sarah asked.

"Not unless they took the entire room apart and knew to look for it. It'll search for any code with my father's encryption and transfer it out to Casey. Once it's done, it'll disable itself and nobody will ever know it was there."

The elevator opened on the basement level. A long hallway stood between them and the door to the server room.

"Looks good. Let's go," Chuck said.

Sarah grabbed his arm. "Wait," she whispered. She then took a coin from her pocket and threw it down the hallway. Darts whistled out of the walls as the coin passed by.

"Whoah, that's impressive," Chuck said.

"The panel next to the door will disable it," Sarah said. "Of course, we'd have to get past all of the darts to do it."

Sarah looked at the ceiling to see if she could go across above the darts but there was not enough room. Chuck concentrated on the hallway and began to flash, various gymnastics instructions going through his mind. He winced in pain again but shook his head clear. He took two steps back and sprinted. He dove forward and pushed off his hands, twisting in the air as the darts started to whistle past. He quickly backflipped over and over, the darts just missing him every time, until he landed next to the keypad to disable them.

Sarah stared in shock as she walked down the hallway to him. "OK, will you EVER listen to me about not flashing?"

"I'm fine, Sarah. I promise." He turned and used his electronic keycard to get the door to the server room open. The two went inside. Sarah kept watch while Chuck used a screwdriver to open one of the server panels.

"And no flashing!" Sarah hissed at him.

"OK, the leaping, kicking, fighting stuff you do so well, I need to flash. But this is my wheelhouse here. I'm good to go."

Chuck reached inside and attached the USB transfer device to the server. He nodded to Sarah and began to put the panels back.

"Begin the search, Case," Sarah whispered.

Casey moved over to the other computer in the van and created a link with the USB device, activating the search program. After a moment, data began to download into the computer.

"It'll take about twenty minutes to download everything," Casey said.

"That's a lot of time," Sarah replied.

"But that's several of terabytes of information," Chuck said. "It'd normally take hours. I'm just glad Jimmy's as good at this stuff as I am."

"Let's get going."

They went to the door and it slid open…revealing a trio of guards.

Chuck's eyes widened, but the guards were in equal shock at seeing Sarah.

"Jen Burton?!" one of them exclaimed.

Sarah quick-drew her tranq guns and shot all three, sending them to the ground. "Come on, Chuck!" she yelled, pulling at his arm. He followed her, jumping over the unconscious guards as they ran down the hallway.

"What the hell!" Chuck was in a full panic. "They know who you are now!"

"I used the twilight darts on them," Sarah said quickly as they got to the elevator. They won't remember us, but they'll be up in minutes. We have to go now!"

They got in the elevator, and it began to ascend. Unfortunately, it stopped five floors short of the roof, and red emergency lights began to flash.

"They locked us in," Chuck said. "What do we do?"

"Give me a hand," Sarah said quickly. She moved Chuck to the middle of the elevator and put her foot up. Chuck caught on and gave her a foothold, lifting her up so she could push away the elevator's ceiling tiles. She dropped back down and grabbed Chuck's piton gun, aiming up the elevator shaft and firing. Chuck attached the line to his belt and Sarah wrapped herself around him, holding on tightly as he activated the winch. They were propelled to the roof and quickly exited out the door they came in. They went to the edge of the roof.

"OK, how to do this," Sarah said, looking over the edge.

Chuck looked at his piton gun and flashed. "Sorry," he said as he winced again in pain. "Couldn't help myself."

He took her hand and pulled her back ten steps. He then reloaded the gun. "Ready?" Sarah nodded. "Go!"

The two ran at the edge of the roof and stepped off. Sarah put her arms around Chuck's neck as he twisted around and fired at the building as the two fell. It caught and Chuck hit the belaying clamps on the winch, slowing their descent. The winch stopped them just before they hit the ground, but Chuck flipped upside-down as a result. Sarah got herself down from Chuck and went to unhook him.

"Wait," he said, still upside-down.

"What?" she asked.

"No Spider-Man kiss?"

Sarah growled in annoyance and unhooked Chuck's belt. He landed inelegantly on the ground. The two went back to the van to wait for the download to finish.

 _ **W Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
June 3, 2016  
8:30 AM PDT**_

Daniel Shaw once again woke up and shook off the effects of the tranq dart. This time, however, the television was on and he saw the broadcast of a local news program in Los Angeles. Clearly whoever made the offer was confident he'd take it and placed him where Walker and her team would likely be right now.

On the table next to the bed, a laptop sat in screensaver mode. Shaw woke the laptop and looked at a small Post-It note attached to it.

 _Hit play._

Shaw moved the mouse and clicked the play button on the video. Once again, he saw the birthday video of Evelyn, telling him she was already regretting giving him the videocamera. He saw her smile, her beautiful green eyes. And that smile…equal parts playful and devilish…that had been imprinted into his mind since that Friday in Iowa City.

The video then switched to the street scene in Prague. Shaw froze once again as he saw Evelyn's murder. The image then changed to footage of Sarah Walker. He saw clip after clip of her on the TV show, performing missions for the CIA, walking the red carpet, doing interviews, thousands of fans screaming her name. Shaw could feel the rage, the hared broiling to the surface.

Finally, the video flashed back and forth between Sarah shooting Evelyn and being almost worshipped by the entire country. Shaw gave a primal scream and sent his fist through the mirror in the room, shattering it.

He stopped, looking at his blood-soaked fist with a deranged fascination. He casually walked to the bathroom and rinsed his hand in the sink. He then wrapped a towel around it and returned to the laptop. Closing the video, he found several folders on the desktop, each of which bore the name of a cast member. Each folder contained various images, video files, and documents. There was also a folder with Chuck Bartowski's name on it, but there were fewer files inside.

Shaw sat back in his chair. He knew there was only one way to restore his sanity. He knew there was only one way to bring peace to himself.

He began to study.

 _ **Wilmington Industrial Park – Los Angeles, CA  
June 2, 2016  
2:00 PM PDT**_

Carina, Jimmy, and Alex pulled up behind a warehouse two away from the one Morgan spotted. Carina and Alex readied their weapons while Jimmy booted his laptop and prepared a similar storage drive to the one Chuck and he worked on to get the data from the DNI servers.

"Any trouble?" he asked as he handed his tablet computer to Alex. They slowly moved forward.

"Nothing so far," she replied, looking at the link to satellite recon that Stephen had set up for them. Fortunately, tasking one of the NSA's best satellites took little time now that he had the full cooperation of the government. "Based on their movements, they're just patrolling the area."

Carina kept watch with her gun drawn while Jimmy took a laser device to cut a hole into the outer wall of the warehouse where the Ring was keeping their computer servers.

"How long will this take?" Carina asked.

"I don't know," Jimmy replied. "It depends on how long it takes me to find Mr. Bartowski's encrypted files. And whether they were able to crack through any of it. We have to leave the cupboard bare."

Jimmy finished cutting the hole. He pulled the section loose and quietly placed it to the side. The three entered the warehouse with their weapons at the ready.

Carina set her smartphone to scan. "I'm picking up heat sources at the other end of the warehouse. Temperatures above 110 degrees taking up half of that room," she said as she pointed at an office in the same direction.

Jimmy looked at the display. "Either we've hit paydirt or we found a very large person with a really bad fever," he quipped as the three started moving in that direction. Jimmy got to the door and checked to make sure Carina and Alex were ready. He threw open the door and the two women entered with guns pointed in opposite directions to cover the room.

"Clear," Alex said as Jimmy entered. He went straight to the keyboard and monitor set up at a desk at one end of the room.

"Can you get in?" Carina asked.

Jimmy started to access the computer. "It'll take a few minutes. These guys don't exactly buy their security software on eBay."

He continued to access the Ring's systems as Carina and Alex went outside the door to keep watch.

"OK, so how was he?" Carina asked.

"What?" Alex was surprised.

"Come on. I have to know."

Alex glared at her. "You always begin conversations this way?"

"More often than you think," Carina replied with a grin.

"I am under no obligation to discuss that with you. You don't need to know how amazing Jimmy was in bed," Alex said with a knowing raise of her eyebrow.

"Dammit," Carina cursed. "I knew I should have been more aggressive with him when he first arrived."

"You could have been MORE aggressive?" Alex gave her a weird look. "I've seen porn films that are more chaste than you."

"Funny," Carina said in disgust. "Jimmy was a total mess when we started working with him, but he improved thanks mostly to Sarah. Consider yourself lucky you got the current version. I don't think you could have tolerated the old version."

"But you still had plenty of chances."

Carina exhaled. "Yeah, but when you work with someone long enough, it's hard to think of them in those terms. But he's a really good guy. So is Case. I actually talked to Chuck about this."

Alex looked at her oddly. "You were talking about personal things? Doesn't sound like your style."

Carina shrugged. "That's Chuck for you. He gets you to open up whether you want to or not. The guy is borderline obsessed with helping us…and not just on missions. I mean, how many genuinely good people do we run across in this business?"

"Few to none," Alex said in agreement.

"It's so obvious how Sarah could fall in love with him. He's that good of a guy. Even Casey can tolerate him. And that was before Ilsa calmed his ass down."

Alex smiled at that. "And I can see how you'd like Cole. Brash, gorgeous, that accent is totally hot."

"It's funny. He accuses me of taming him and I've accused him of doing the same to me. Détente, I guess. But you did pretty well for yourself."

"That I did," Alex replied with a smile.

Jimmy walked up to them. "I found it."

The three walked back to the computer and Jimmy showed the code he discovered. "These folders were added within the last twelve hours. They tried to fake the timestamps, but whoever did this was a bit slipshod doing it. Maybe they were concentrating on breaking Mr. Bartowski's encryption."

"Can you delete the data?" Carina asked.

"Sure, but we need to make sure we find the original drive they took from the DNI. Otherwise we've wasted our time."

Carina and Alex began to look around. Alex noticed a file cabinet not lined up against the wall. She pulled it forward to reveal a safe behind it.

"Jackpot, I hope," she said. She went back to Jimmy's bag to get his safecracking tools.

"Hold it."

Carina, Jimmy, and Alex turned to see a half-dozen Ring agents in front of them.

"Drop your guns," the lead agent said. The three put their guns on the ground and two of the Ring agents retrieved them.

"At the risk of making a bad pun, the show is over," the agent said with a grin.

"You have to keep deleting those files, Jimmy," Carina whispered.

"Uh, I'd like to, but there's six of them and three of us," he whispered back.

"Yeah, it just doesn't seem fair. The Silicon Valley ep, Jimmy?"

"That's the one."

Alex looked at the two in confusion. Jimmy then turned back to the computer and bent over. Carina leaped and rolled across Jimmy's back to get the man to their right. Alex caught on quickly and slid down out of Carina's way, leaping up to throw a palm strike at the man to their left. Jimmy stayed down programming the computer to purge the hard drives as Carina pushed off of him again to nail a third agent. Alex pulled two telescoping batons out of her sleeves and went to town, swinging away like she was entered in a home-run contest. She knocked two of the agents unconscious as the first two tried to get up. Jimmy held onto the table and mule-kicked those two agents in the face as six more came in to attack. Carina landed a flying kick at one of them, sending the agent into two others and knocking them down. Alex swung one baton to trip up one agent and nailed him in the face with the other.

Jimmy activated the purge program for the computer and ran for the safe, attaching an electronic device to quickly scan for the correct combination. One of the agents tried to grab Alex, but he whirled around and nailed the man in the side of the head with his elbow. As Carina sent a hard cross into another agent, Jimmy grabbed Alex and swung her. She connected with two other agents and sent them to the ground. Behind Carina, the last agent pulled out a gun and prepared to fire. Alex took her baton and threw it at the man. The shot missed Carina but hit the computer, shorting it out. Jimmy finished him off with a vicious roundhouse.

The device on the safe beeped, and Carina ran over, opening it and grabbing the data drive out of it. Alex took a look at the monitor.

"The computer's had it," she said quickly. "Any idea if the purge went through?"

"It ran for about thirty seconds," Jimmy replied. "That probably got a lot, but there's no way to know without grabbing all the hard drives."

"There's no time," Carina replied, showing them the tablet computer's surveillance image. "They've got the building surrounded."

The three quickly left the office and found a ladder leading up to the roof. They climbed up looked around. They found a walking bridge between one building and another near a group of electric transformers. They started to go in that direction when gunfire erupted. They ducked down, narrowly avoiding being hit. They turned and fired back. The man they fired at tried to get out of the way but stumbled into the transformers. He was electrocuted instantly, but one of the transformers was knocked out of place, touching and electrifying the bridge.

"Shit, now what?" Alex cursed.

"We don't have a lot of time," Carina said. "The rest of those idiots will be up here any second."

Jimmy looked across to the other building. He spotted the junction box. "OK, I'll leap over and turn off the power."

He took five steps back. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN…" Alex yelled as Jimmy ran at the edge of the roof and leaped off. "…MIND!"

He fell a few inches short and almost fell to the ground. He struggled to get a handhold to pull himself up.

Carina and Alex looked at each other. "Should I…" Carina started calmly.

"Nah, I got it."

Alex pulled out a knife and threw it at the junction box, hitting the power switch and cutting off the current going through the transformers. The two walked casually over the bridge while Jimmy continued to struggle to pull himself up on the ledge.

"So, you're from Philadelphia, right?" Carina casually asked Alex as they waited for Jimmy to pull himself up.

"Yes," Alex replied.

"Big Eagles fan?"

"My father used to work the players' tunnel at the old Veteran's Stadium. What about you? You prefer college or pro?"

"College, but I'm not a huge fan. I went to Alabama, so I attended a lot of Crimson Tide games."

"They've got a really good team there."

"They are, yeah. Casey and I were at the Iron Bowl game a few Thanksgivings ago. Naturally, he chose to root for Auburn."

"Sounds like he'd do that."

Jimmy finally managed to pull himself up and was surprised to see Carina and Alex standing there. "How did you…"

Alex waved her knife with a big grin. Jimmy looked at the junction box and across to where they previously were. "Oh, sure. Do it the easy way," he grumbled.

"Seriously, Jimmy, I haven't seen you do anything this embarrassing since that photo-op at the First Lady's physical fitness for kids event," Carina said as they found a ladder at the opposite end of the roof and went down it.

"I thought we weren't going to talk about that anymore," he growled.

"Oh, I remember that," Alex said. "They took that picture of you and Dwayne Johnson together." Alex started to laugh. "The guy's half a foot taller than you."

"What did TMZ call Jimmy for a week?" Carina asked. "I'm trying to…"

"Mini-Rock!" Alex exclaimed, which got Carina laughing hysterically.

"And yet, we're still talking about it." Jimmy's slow burn was quickly picking up speed.

"Hey, at least now I know why Kiefer Sutherland never smiles," Alex said.

Jimmy shook his head in aggravation as they got away from the warehouse.

 ** _W Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
June 4, 2016  
9:00 AM PDT_**

Daniel Shaw spent the last twenty-four hours studying the contents of the laptop. He read the bios on Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. He saw their training records, their service, how the team had been formed, and each person's areas of expertise. The Ring wasn't lying when they said these were the best agents in the government.

He used to be like this. So was Evelyn. They had made quite a few waves just out of training at The Farm. Both of them excelled in their chosen majors at Iowa and were well on their way to being two of the best spies in the government.

This could have been Evelyn and him. This should have been Evelyn and him. They should have been the CIA's top team and in this cover. But his wife was dead, murdered by the woman whose career skyrocketed a few years later. It wasn't right. This was not justice.

He looked at the file on Chuck Bartowski. He had the greatest desire to take away from Sarah what she took away from him; the person she loved. But that was not part of the deal; Chuck was to be handed over to this organization. That was made quite clear. Still, it didn't mean he couldn't inflict some damage on him first. Make Chuck feel the pain he has felt for over a decade. And make Sarah watch just before he took her life as well.

He opened a document on the laptop that merely showed a telephone number to call. He went to the phone in the room and dialed it.

"I'm ready," he said. "Let's take them out."


	35. Putting the Action in Action-Comedy

_OK, that took longer than I wanted it to. I'm trying my best to keep to the two-week schedule, but I have to admit having a bit of difficulty organizing these chapters. We're making our way towards the end of the story, but there are still a number of chapters to go. If you have suggestions for what you'd like to see (or not see) please let me know. I can't guarantee I'll honor all requests, but maybe something will pop up somewhere that shakes this thing loose and I'll be full-speed ahead._

 _Obviously I want to get some Shaw and some Clyde Decker involvement. There probably could have been more, but not to worry. It's coming. And again, I try to involve all of the characters as much as I can. And a few little funny moments here and there. At least I hope they're funny._

 _NBC and Fake Empire (would it kill ya to put Chuck back on the air? Really?) are responsible for the characters, while I can be blamed for the current content. But please leave reviews. Always want to hear what you have to say._

 _Enjoy the chapter, and remember, we now live in a world where the Cubs have won the World Series. Yay! :-D_

* * *

 _ **Hyatt Regency Hotel – Reston, VA  
June 3, 2016  
1:00 AM EDT**_

Chuck finished brushing his teeth and wiped his mouth off with the towel next to the shower. He was exhausted from the night's events, but the night was a success. The Intersect data was successfully downloaded, and Casey had it sealed in a strongbox in his hotel room. They would leave in the morning on the jet to return to Los Angeles so his father could continue building the two Intersects they needed: the one to remove the Intersect already in Chuck's head and the one they would download into Jimmy.

He walked out into the bedroom and saw Sarah on her phone. "OK. Thanks, Case," he heard her say. "Get some rest and we'll be ready by nine. Good night."

She put her phone down and looked at Chuck. "Casey talked to Carina. They were able to get the stolen drive back, but she said they were attacked and Jimmy may not have been able to purge all of the Ring's files from their servers."

"Are they OK?" Chuck asked.

"They got away, yes. But there's no way to know if the Ring still has any of your father's data."

Chuck slid into the bed. He couldn't miss the look on Sarah's face. "Are you OK?" he asked.

"Fine," she replied in a clipped tone. Certainly it didn't take a degree in psychology to figure out Sarah was far from fine.

"Sarah…" Chuck prodded.

"What?"

"I've seen you do that before. Switching back and forth between being an agent and just being Sarah. Half of you wants to yell at me and the other half is trying to stop you."

"I'm not…" Sarah started to say, but the look on Chuck's face made her halt her automatic denial. She exhaled slowly. "This is…this is hard for me. When we're in the field, I want to treat you the same as I treat the others, especially now with all that you can do. But…with what the Intersect is doing to you and the danger we keep getting in and…I just can't…"

Chuck put his arms around her shaking form. "I want you to worry, OK? I think I'd be more scared if you just let me walk right into danger without a second thought. I worry every time we're out there, too. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Sarah smiled and caressed Chuck's face, giving him a gentle kiss. "I can't decide which part of you I love the most. Your beautiful eyes, your big smile, how caring and sweet you are…"

"But what about…"

"…and how you make me laugh," Sarah said with a grin, putting a finger in Chuck's face. "I didn't forget that."

Chuck planted a few kisses along Sarah's cheek and neck as he held her in her arms. "So glad you kept the charm bracelet," he said, looking at the nightstand behind Sarah.

"I'd never get rid of that." She reached behind her and grabbed it. "I even added a couple of charms I saw at a store in Europe while we were there." She turned the bracelet to show Chuck. "I found this one of a castle in Sweden, and then I thought this little hummingbird was pretty…"

Chuck froze as he began to flash. He saw images of an actual hummingbird, a training site, gardenias, and a birth certificate with the name Samantha Lisa Baker.

"Samantha?" he said to himself, wincing at the pain from his flash, but Sarah looked at him in wide-eyed shock.

"How do you know about that?" she said in alarm, bolting up in the bed.

"I'm…I'm sorry. I saw the hummingbird on the bracelet and I…I didn't mean to…"

Sarah turned so she was sitting on the edge of the bed facing away from Chuck and buried her face in her hands. Chuck could see her shake uncontrollably. He slid over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Talk to me," he said gently. "You can tell me."

"That's…that's a part of me I've wanted to forget," she said softly. "Ever since I became an agent."

"I know. You hate your past. As a picture of me discovered the hard way when you threw that pencil through it."

Sarah smiled at that and pulled Chuck closer to her. "It's…I think about what I went through with my father. The cons we pulled. Jenny Burton, Katie O'Connell, Rebecca Franco…I had to change my name more times than I'd care to remember. I just didn't want to…"

Chuck took her face in his hands and turned her gently to him. "It's hard, I know. But look at what happened to Samantha Baker. Forget about how great of a spy you are or how beautiful you are. Well, I mean you're both of those things. But you keep saying what's on the inside of me makes me beautiful. That's true of you, too. You've made such a big difference in everyone's life. Case's, Carina's, Jimmy's…"

He placed his lips on hers, giving her a soft kiss. "And what you've meant to me is beyond description. I couldn't love anyone more than I love you. So be Samantha, be Jenny, be Katie, be Rebecca, it doesn't matter. You're the person I want to be with. Forever."

Sarah looked into his eyes as her own began to well up. She grabbed him and kissed him with unbridled passion, pushing him back onto the bed and wrapping her arms tightly around him.

"Sarah Walker is who I want to be," she said. "The person who is completely and totally in love with someone as wonderful as you."

The two continued to kiss each other passionately.

~/^\~

Casey took a sip from the glass of whiskey he poured. It annoyed him to no end he'd have to go outside if he wanted to enjoy a cigar, a tradition of his whenever a mission went successfully. But it was late in the night and it would be an early morning. He could save it until later.

He looked over at the nightstand to see his smartphone vibrating. He quietly growled; he was ready to get some sleep. He looked at the caller ID and exhaled.

"Ilsa? What are you doing awake?"

"I'm too tired to sleep," she replied. "I'm starting to get the feeling these high school boys are breaking their computers on purpose just so they can leer at me in the store. And the two scary ones that work with me are less than useless."

"Would you rather have Victor Federov lying on top of you stinking of alcohol and cigarettes while waiting for the blue pill to kick in?"

"Point taken. How are you doing?"

"Everything was a success here. Chuck and Sarah got the intel we needed. Mr. Bartowski and Ellie are back in business."

"You make a good team. Chuck is so different than the last time I saw him."

"I admit being very impressed with what he can do using the new Intersect. What he did that night when he saved Sarah and me from those Ring agents. Never saw anything like that in my life."

"Indeed. All of you did such a wonderful job setting me free. I just hope we can make this a success."

"We'll be back in Los Angeles later tomorrow."

"Good. I miss you out here."

"You do, huh?"

"We haven't had time to ourselves, John. We were captured in Lankaran not five minutes after reuniting, and then with everything that happened. I haven't had much of a chance to be alone with you."

"I wouldn't mind a little alone time myself."

"In fact…" Ilsa's voice became softer and more throaty. "…if you were here, I'd be unbuttoning your shirt, planting hot kisses all along your chest."

"Oh, you would?"

"Then I'd slide my hands over your body, move them downward, and start to unbutton your pants…"

"Are you…are you trying to have phone sex with me?" Casey asked in confusion.

"It's been too long, Sugar Bear," Ilsa purred. "A girl has needs."

Casey rolled his eyes. "Good night, Ilsa."

He hung up the phone and placed it on his nightstand, exhaling in mild irritation. He pulled back the covers and got into the bed. A moment later, his smartphone vibrated again, indicating a message. He reached for it and opened the attachment with the message. His eyes widened.

He sat up in the bed. "Being a nerd has its perks," he said to himself as he responded to Ilsa's text.

 _ **Venice Beach – Venice, CA  
June 3, 2016  
5:45 AM PDT**_

Jimmy ran along the sand as the sun began to rise. It was a routine Sarah and Carina had imprinted into him since his early days with the team. He would typically go for a three-mile run whenever the opportunity presented itself. The view here was beautiful, to be certain. But he had done runs through San Francisco, the streets of Paris, and even through Red Square in Moscow and those were very picturesque. His favorite, however, still remained the bike path along Lake Michigan back home. That little curve the path took just south of Fullerton Avenue that made the Chicago skyline pop out right in front of him was incredible. It was a rare he took the run at this hour, but he figured to be in for a busy day and he had to keep up on his exercise. After all, famous Hollywood hunk was part of his job description.

He turned his head as he jogged, sensing a presence behind him. Suddenly, someone breezed by on his other side. The slender frame, ponytail, and long, sexy legs were all he needed to know that Alex just lapped him.

"I flew right by you and you're just going to sit there and take it?" she yelled over her shoulder, teasing him.

"Trying to motivate me by wounding my pride?" Jimmy called out. "Do you even know me?"

"Fine, if I beat you to that next dune, you have to wear that outfit I bought for you to bed tonight!"

 _Aaah, hell_ , he thought to himself. He hated wearing anything to bed other than a t-shirt and boxers. And he sure as hell didn't want to wear those black leather briefs that were at least a size too small and left zero to the imagination.

He launched into a full sprint, which caused Alex to stand momentarily in shock. She then took off just as he passed her. She quickly regained the lead.

"You should know I lettered in track in high school," Alex warned him.

"What events?"

"Half-mile and the mile."

"Then I'm glad there's only two hundred yards left."

Jimmy found another gear and took the lead back. Alex was about to lose…badly. She swooped down and grabbed a bottle someone had left in the sand. She whipped it forward into Jimmy's path, forcing him to swerve around it to avoid it. But it knocked him off-stride enough for her to reach the dune two seconds before he did.

"Oh, you cheat so bad!" Jimmy growled.

"I say I improvised," Alex said in a gritty voice, trying to imitate Clint Eastwood.

"Yeah, improvise this!"

Jimmy lunged at her and lifted her up, throwing her over his shoulder. He started jogging towards the water.

"Don't you dare!" she squealed. Jimmy wasn't having it as he approached the ocean with Alex pounding his back and laughing her head off the whole time. "OK, OK! I cheated! Now put me down!"

Jimmy got to the water and threw Alex towards it. She screamed as she fell, but Jimmy caught her in his arms two inches before she got soaked. She laughed hysterically as she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him hard.

"Mmm, no more cheating. I promise," she said breathlessly, giving him another sizzling kiss. "I don't think I've ever laughed that hard in my life."

"Glad I could entertain you," he said with a tinge of annoyance.

Alex gave him a playful growl. "I never would have pegged you as the jogging type. I figured it was a gym or health club for you and that was it."

"That's what I did before joining the team three years ago. Free weights, stair climber, and the occasional swim. Sarah told me to take up running and Carina dragged me to a few yoga classes early on. I guess they figured I needed to clear my mind as much as keep in shape. Although Carina insisted I do the downward-facing dog pose. A lot."

"And I'm thinking she did a few of them in your presence, too. But I agree with them." She took a long, lascivious look at Jimmy. "I certainly can't complain about the results."

Jimmy gave a shy smile and put her down gently. She kept her arms wrapped around him. "Everything alright?" she asked.

"Are you sure you're OK with this? Me being the new Intersect?" Jimmy looked at the ground. "I mean, I know I didn't talk with you first before making this decision, but I didn't want to assume anything about…you know…where we are. And I owe this to Chuck and Sarah. I mean…you know how much of a screw-up I used to be. They really want this, and I want to be able to give it to them, but…"

Alex grabbed his face and kissed him hard, gripping the back of his head like a vise as she teased and tasted his lips with an insatiable hunger.

"THIS is where I want to be," she said in no uncertain terms. "With you. I'm not going anywhere. My life is good again and you're the reason why. That's the best thing about you…outside of how crazy hot you are. There's no limit to what you'll do for the people you care about. I know I've been on the receiving end of your talents quite a few times." She raised her eyebrow. "And sometimes outside of the bedroom."

"Good. I don't want you going anywhere, either."

She gently stroked his chin. "Besides, if all of this goes according to plan, your team will have a job opening. Think I can get an interview?"

"Mmm, I don't know," Jimmy teased. "Not really sure what you're capable of."

Alex grinned and kissed him hard, one of her hands sliding under his shirt to caress his chest. She slipped the other hand inside of his shorts. "Oh, I think you know what I'm capable of," she whispered hotly into his ear, tickling it with her tongue.

"Let's get back to the hotel," he panted, completely turned on at this point.

"Not enough time." Alex straddled his waist and grinded against him. "Head for that food stand over there. We'll break in."

Jimmy ran for the food stand with Alex wrapped around him.

 _ **Office of the Director of National Intelligence – McLean, VA  
June 3, 2016  
8:30 AM EDT**_

"Your report?" Beckman asked.

"We're still trying to track down as many of the Ring's assets as possible. Finding Basta's files was helpful, but with what Walker's team did yesterday in Los Angeles, we can assume the Ring is scrambling to find new hiding places and shore up their encryption to keep us from getting our hands on anything."

"We have to remain aggressive. Call in whoever you need to go through those files and see if there's any unusual chatter that may be of use to us."

"Will do."

The man stood but accidentally dropped the folder he was carrying. "Sorry, General."

Clyde Decker bent down to pick up the folder, which gave him just enough time to plant the clip on the network cable leading to Beckman's computer. The Ring figured they could bypass the DNI's firewalls and listen in on her phone conversations, but they needed an insider to plant the bug.

"Goodbye, General," Decker said, leaving her office. He could stonewall Beckman for as long as he needed and the Ring now had access to her computer. But stopping Walker and her team was up to them.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
June 4, 2016  
1:15 PM PDT**_

Stephen Bartowski hooked up the drive Casey brought back from Washington, D.C. and ran a check. All the necessary data was there.

"OK, great," he said as he scanned the monitor. "The data architecture from both my original Intersect and the one Beckman had altered is here. I should be able to sort through the changes they made and make the proper adjustments."

"Which will you build first?" Casey asked.

"The Intersect I'll use to purge the one in Chuck's mind is the easier one since I simply have to take Beckman's Intersect and redesign the algorithms so the images cancel out the ones Chuck has seen. Building Jimmy's is much more difficult."

"It has to be adapted to his cranial network?"

Stephen nodded. "Ellie and Devon are working on that as we speak. Jimmy and Alex went over to the hospital an hour ago to get the neuroimaging done on his brain. That should provide what I need to make an Intersect to suit Beckman's needs that he can safely carry."

"So they're scanning Slade's mind? Shortest task they'll ever do," Casey said with ample amounts of snark.

Stephen shook his head and smiled. "Now I know where Duke Forrester gets his attitude from."

Casey shrugged. "We give each other crap all the time. Slade gives as good as he gets. So does Miller. Walker keeps all of us in line. Best agent I ever knew. Best team I ever worked with."

"I'm so glad I trusted her. And then to have Chuck and her fall in love…I made so many mistakes in my past. So many things I regret. But how my children turned out wiped so many of those away."

Stephen stared ahead for a moment. "There are a lot of people I'm indebted to. And you're one of the big ones. I can never thank you enough for protecting my family."

"Honored to do it. Well, most days." That gave Stephen a smile. "You've got two good kids. They deserve the best."

"I think the same can be said for you. Will you stay with the team or do you have other plans with Ilsa?"

"Haven't given it much thought. Only thing I know is I don't want to sit behind a desk in D.C. the rest of my life. Six days and I was already crawling up the walls."

"I agree. You don't strike me as the type. What about Ilsa?"

"She's not happy. French government is still denying her very existence. Didn't even give her credit for the work she did. I'm guessing she'd be happy to tell them to piss off."

"Sounds like you two have a lot to discuss."

Casey nodded. "Once we get through with this."

"Well, if I may suggest you take her away from the store and get lunch somewhere. She could use a break right now. I'll be fine for a while, and everybody else should be back within the next half-hour."

"You shouldn't be left alone…"

"Morgan's still here and so are the people Cole brought in. I'll be OK back here."

Casey hesitated, but Stephen did have a point. As last night's impromptu 'conversation' with Ilsa proved, the two of them needed some alone time.

"Maybe you're right. I'll…"

His smartphone began to ring. "Yes?" He listened for a moment and his eyes widened. "Call Chuck and Sarah right now and get them over here," he ordered Stephen. "I'll get on the horn to Slade and Forrest."

"What is it?" Stephen asked, the alarm rising in his voice.

"Someone took a shot at Miller and Barker."

 _ **KTLA Television Studios – Los Angeles, CA  
June 4, 2016  
12:45 PM PDT**_

"Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio, Carina," the news reporter said. "And we look forward to the new season of _Jen Burton: Spy Girl_."

"Thanks for having me here," Carina replied in her well-practiced interview persona. She took off her microphone and walked back to the green room of KTLA Studios where Cole was waiting for her.

"God, I hate these," Carina grumbled.

"Yeah, it really sucks being adored by the public," Cole replied with a teasing lilt.

"Hysterical. Any time I do one of these, they always ask more questions about who I'm dating than about the show. These idiots in the media don't do that to Sarah and Jimmy, and they're way better at these things than me."

"You don't exactly project the image of a nun, you know. Sex sells. Haven't you learned that after six years?"

She huffed in frustration. "True, I guess. I made my bed, now I have to let everybody sleep in it."

Cole laughed and wrapped his arms around her. "Hey, you have a handsome, sexy, confident guy in your life now. Consider yourself lucky."

"True." She paused. "I wonder where he is right now."

Cole made a face at her before breaking out into a grin. Carina gave him a kiss. "We should head over to the Buy More," she said. "Your team over there could use a break, and I'm sure Ilsa would take Casey someplace if she had an hour or two free."

"Sounds like a good idea," Cole replied.

The two left the studio and headed to their car. They noticed a construction crew setting up shop a half-block away. Carina started her Ferrari and drove away from the studio, turning onto Bronson Avenue. They then saw more construction signs and detours away from the area.

"This was set up awfully quick," Carina said cautiously. "We were only in the studio for an hour."

Cole started to look back and forth. The construction workers kept glancing in their direction.

"I don't like this," he said quietly.

Carina threw the steering wheel hard to the left and the car spun around. A garbage truck started to move to block the street. She floored it, the car quickly reaching 60 MPH. She threw the wheel hard to the right and back, skirting around the garbage truck. Two people near the truck fired away with automatic weapons, the shots barely missing the Ferrari.

Two SUVs peeled out and chased after Carina and Cole as she banked hard onto westbound Santa Monica Boulevard. The two vehicles in pursuit closed the gap.

"Do you have a gun?" Cole asked.

"Check the glove compartment," she quickly replied.

Cole reached in and found Carina's Sig Sauer P229. He loaded it as the first car got close, almost touching the Ferrari's bumper.

"Now!" Cole shouted.

Carina threw the steering wheel hard to the right, spinning the Ferrari. Cole emptied the Sig at the windshield of the SUV in pursuit. The vehicle skidded out of control and plowed head-first into a building, killing everyone inside.

Carina and Cole spun forward again as the other SUV started to catch up.

"They'll be on us really fast," Cole said, looking at the vehicle from the rear-view mirror.

Carina gripped the wheel hard. "Check your seatbelt," she warned.

"What for?" Cole asked nervously, quickly making sure his seatbelt was fastened properly.

Carina threw the wheel hard to the left while slamming on the brakes. She then floored it. The Ferrari drove directly at the other vehicle.

"Uh, Carina, you're going to play chicken in a Ferrari? Against an SUV?" Cole asked in shock.

Carina stared straight ahead with a snarl on her face as she pushed her car to 100 MPH. The SUV got closer and closer and showed no signs of blinking first. They would crash in two seconds.

"Get down!" she shouted, pulling Cole down with her.

Carina hit the brakes hard as the SUV veered left to avoid her. Its left wheels hit an empty car-hauling truck. The SUV flew into the air, rolling over and over, before landing on its engine block and exploding.

Carina and Cole slowly looked up and turned to see the destroyed SUV behind them.

She turned to him. "I probably should have warned you that dating me isn't very good for your health."

"Perhaps," Cole replied. "But it'll never be boring."

Carina smiled. "Good point."

She got on her smartphone and called Casey.

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
June 4, 2016  
1:00 PM PDT**_

"OK, one more scan and we should have it."

Jimmy lay on the table with his head inside the MRI chamber. Ellie and Alex watched Devon and the technicians run the tenth and final scan of Jimmy's mind. To be safe, they used both an MRI and made a documented computer tomography of his neural and cranial network. There were volumes of information being generated by the machines, but both Ellie and Devon insisted on being thorough, and Jimmy knew it would be stupid for him to just play it off and tell them not to go overboard.

"Aww, dammit. I was getting so comfortable lying on my back on this small table," Jimmy replied with a grin.

"Any chance the Intersect could do something to fix his lame sense of humor?" Alex asked Ellie.

Ellie shook her head. "That's WAY too much effort. It'd take forever."

"You sure? Feel free to quote me a price."

"I CAN hear you out there," Jimmy spat.

"Jimmy, stay still," Devon said, and Jimmy stopped moving. "In three…two…one…"

The last images were taken, Jimmy hearing the motors and the clicking of the magnets inside the MRI.

The technicians began to compile the data as Ellie, Devon, and Alex went into the room, helping Jimmy sit up.

"Do you have everything your dad will need?" Jimmy asked.

"We got it," Ellie said. "There's still so many questions I want to ask him about this."

"You took a few neurophysiology classes at UCLA, right?" Alex asked.

"I did. It became sort of a side project for me. I gave a lot of thought to specializing in it, just like Devon is a heart specialist. But I wanted to get out there and save lives. And with all that was going on...our Dad leaving, having to worry about Chuck...it sort of fell to the sidelines. I've given thought of going back to it. Certainly, they don't lack for experts out here. To study under one of them would be amazing."

"I'll go get dressed," Jimmy said. "We should get over to the Buy More and deliver this data to your father."

Jimmy left the room to change out of his hospital gown as the technicians finished compiling the data and saving it to a portable drive. They handed the drive to Devon. A moment later, Jimmy emerged fully dressed.

"Ready?" Alex asked, to which everyone nodded. "Let's go."

The four headed out of the hospital and went towards the car Jimmy borrowed from the NSA. Ellie and Devon got in the back as Jimmy got behind the wheel and Alex sat in the passenger's seat. They drove away from the hospital, heading east towards the Buy More. Jimmy and Alex kept an eye open for trouble, figuring after what happened yesterday, the Ring wouldn't be so easily deterred.

They weren't.

A sedan with blackened windows screamed through a red light. "Look out!" Alex yelled.

Jimmy threw the wheel hard to the right and hit the brakes. The sedan overshot them and also hit the brakes, spinning around to pursue them.

"Let's go!" Ellie shouted.

Jimmy floored it and Alex reached into her purse to pull out a Glock, loading it and putting her other hand on the door handle. The sedan closed the distance.

"Brace yourselves," Jimmy warned.

Ellie and Devon held on. Jimmy slammed on the brakes and veered slightly left into the next lane. The sedan shot forward, and Alex rolled down her window. She emptied her clip at the driver's side window, and the sedan started to weave back and forth. Jimmy pulled away as the sedan ran into the back of a truck. He put the car back on the road heading east.

"We have to get out of here!" Ellie exclaimed.

Devon looked back to see two more sedans heading at them. "Easier said than done."

"We can't get into a shootout with these idiots," Alex said. "Not with you two here."

Jimmy looked around and saw a parking garage two blocks up. "I have an idea."

He turned hard onto Gentry Avenue and tore through the garage, exiting out on the opposite side on Radford Avenue. He then went into another garage and ascended two levels.

"Let's go," he ordered. Everyone got out of the car. Jimmy quickly found a BMW and picked the lock. He set his smartphone to scan for the right code for the vehicle. He hit the ignition button and the engine roared to life.

"You two take this car and head directly to the Buy More," Jimmy said, getting out and pushing Ellie and Devon towards the car. "Don't pass Go, don't collect $200. Alex and I will lead these assholes away from you. They can't know about the Buy More."

"But…" Ellie began.

"Just go! You're only a mile away! Call Casey and tell him what happened."

Ellie looked ready to protest further, but Devon nudged her into the passenger's seat. Alex and Jimmy grabbed their weapons and ran for a motorcycle parked on the same level. Jimmy fired up the engine and got on, and Alex got on behind him. He sped out of the garage just as the two sedans exited the first garage, thinking they were in there. Jimmy stopped and honked the horn.

"Hey, morons!" he yelled, and both of them gave the sedans the finger. The two sedans took off in pursuit as Jimmy and Alex turned back onto Burbank Boulevard and hit the on-ramp to go northbound on the Hollywood Freeway.

"I probably should have asked before we did this, but how many of the stunts on the show did you actually do?" Alex yelled.

"Do you really want the answer?!" Jimmy yelled back.

Alex gripped Jimmy even tighter as the first sedan began to close the gap. Alex turned and opened fire but the sedan continued to gain ground.

"Five seconds to impact!" she said.

"Did you ever see that episode where we had the motorcycle chase through the streets of Rome?"

"Yeah?" Alex said nervously.

"This isn't that!"

Jimmy veered left into a construction zone on the shoulder, breaking through the barriers and ending up in the southbound lanes on the opposite side of the freeway. Cars started hitting the brakes hard as Jimmy weaved the motorcycle in and out of the lanes, barely missing the cars. The sedan tried to keep up by driving on the interior shoulder.

"Finally, something to hate about you!" Alex screamed.

"Hey, those pricks can't hit us now, right?"

"Yeah, because getting creamed by two hundred other cars is so much better!"

Jimmy maneuvered the motorcycle back towards the interior shoulder. The sedan moved up to intercept them again.

"Here we go!" he yelled.

He gunned the motorcycle to 90 MPH and veered to the right, crashing again through construction signs and returning to the northbound lanes. The shrapnel blinded the sedan's occupants, and their vehicle ran directly into a gap in the barrier, splitting in two.

Jimmy and Alex continued in the northbound lanes, and the other sedan began to close the gap. They looked for a ramp to exit, but the next one was closed for construction.

"Any ideas?" Alex said. "And riding in the wrong direction is NOT an option!"

"There's no exit ramp for four miles!" Jimmy exclaimed. "Idiots! Figures there's only two seasons in Los Angeles: construction and construction!"

A shot went off, and Jimmy and Alex barely missed being hit. The sedan was almost on top of them, and it was obvious they didn't care how many people they had to kill to take out the duo. They were a half-mile away from the uncompleted ramp. Jimmy looked over and saw a large crawler crane being used to lower support beams into place on the ramp.

"OK, you weren't a big fan of driving in the opposite lanes?" Jimmy asked.

"Not even a little!" Alex retorted.

"Then hang on because this will REALLY suck!"

Jimmy gunned the motor and cut across the lanes, speeding towards the uncompleted ramp. The sedan kept up the pursuit as Jimmy drove for the edge of the ramp. He put his feet up on the seat of the motorcycle and pushed off with Alex draped on his back. The motorcycle went over the edge and fell one hundred feet to the ground as Jimmy grabbed the large hook dangling from the crane. The sedan tried to hit the brakes, but it was too late. It also drove off the ramp and plunged to the ground.

Jimmy swung the hook over to the crane and Alex got her bearings once again, climbing off him and down the crane to the ground. Jimmy followed her down. Alex looked ready to kill him.

"I have to wear the leather briefs tonight, don't I," he said bashfully.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
June 4, 2016  
2:00 PM PDT**_

Chuck and Sarah pulled into the parking lot and hurried to the back door of the store. They found almost everyone there.

"Is everybody OK?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, we are," Ellie replied, hugging the two of them. "We were attacked on the way over to the Buy More."

"Where are Jimmy and Alex?"

"We ditched the car we were in and they found us another car to drive here," Devon said. "They led the people chasing us away so they wouldn't know where we were going, but that was the last we heard from them."

"Neither of them are answering their phones," Casey said. "Miller and Barker also had company."

"They found us at the TV station where I was giving an interview," Carina said. "They sent a couple of SUVs at us, but we took care of it."

"We told Morgan and Big Mike to close the store early," Cole said. "They're going to pretend there's an employees' meeting, but they'll send them home, too."

"What about your people?" Sarah asked.

"Haven't told them a thing. I was waiting on you."

One of the sensors beeped and everyone turned to check the monitors, breathing a sigh of relief when they saw Jimmy and Alex.

"Next time, I'LL drive!" Alex spat at Jimmy as the two entered.

"OK," Chuck said carefully. "You did escape, right?"

"Barely," Alex said, still upset. "Apparently, the only way he knows how to escape is to do something stupid and risky."

"When will you stop doing that?" Sarah said in exasperation.

Jimmy put a hand up. "Hang on…"

He walked over to the opposite wall and rammed his forehead into it. He stumbled towards the group, completely dizzy.

"What did you do that for?" Stephen demanded.

"I always get injured when a couple fights around here," Jimmy replied. "I was just trying to get it out of the way."

Alex shook her head in frustration. "At least on the good side, they went after us instead of Ellie and Devon. So, this place is still safe."

"But how did they know where to find you?" Ellie asked. "Who knew you'd be over at West Side today?"

"Nobody outside of this room knows that information. Not even Morgan and Big Mike," Jimmy said. "Wait. Beckman knows. So, either she's trying to sabotage her own project, or…"

"Her office has been bugged," Sarah finished.

"Anything else that we need to do we'll have to do on our own," Stephen said. "We can't risk this leaking out."

"Until we know what's going on, the three of you can't be out of our sight," Casey said to Ellie, Devon, and Stephen. "Cole, you and Ilsa draw up a schedule to watch the three of them. Use the other agents if you need to. Bring in more if needed."

"And the rest of us must take the fight to the Ring," Sarah said. "Enough playing defense; it's time to go on offense."

"We'll need intel," Jimmy said. "Lots of it. And nobody can know how we got our hands on it. Chuck, you up for a little hacking?"

"I thought you'd never ask," he replied with a smile.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 4, 2016  
5:00 PM PDT**_

Daniel Shaw reread the file on Chuck Bartowski as he sat in the car, taking the occasional glance at the store. He knew the Ring missed something. He learned they had sent agents to go after members of Sarah's team earlier today, but all of them failed. He wasn't sure why they even bothered, given they've failed repeatedly, despite the data they got from General Beckman's computer. He figured the team knew her office was bugged by now, so they'd play it even closer to the vest.

Shaw looked at Bartowski's timeline. He was kicked out of Stanford just before his final semester started for cheating on a test. That didn't make sense. Who would need to cheat on a test when they were so close to graduating, anyway? Something didn't feel right about that. Of even more bizarre coincidence was his work at the Buy More for over a decade following his expulsion from college. From nothing to all of this instant fame? Just because Sarah Walker came into the store? Shaw wasn't so cynical he didn't believe in romance…at least he used to…but all of this smacked of a series of conveniences. A spy suddenly grows an interest in some civilian? And what about his family? How come there was plenty of data on his sister, Ellie, but nothing on his parents?

And why was the Buy More closed? He knew they had been closed for two weeks supposedly suffering some issue with the gas lines underneath the store, but why close early just four days after you've reopened? That didn't make sense either. Something was going on.

He drove back to the hotel but had every intention of returning. The Ring wanted Chuck Bartowski for some reason. The Buy More was as good of a place as any to start. It might be the lynchpin for capturing Chuck and killing Sarah.


	36. The Gloves (among other things) Are Off

_Ugh, sorry about that. I have been trying to write this new chapter for weeks now, and between work and a serious case of writer's block, I haven't been very successful. I had written the first couple of sections of the story right away, but then I started having trouble transitioning into the second half of the chapter and deciding what should go in and what should stay out. One of the big scenes in this chapter, in fact, was done after I threw out a good two or three pages of writing (hope you like the shout-out to Chuck Versus the Wookiee). And I've gotten a bit obsessed with work as of late. On the good side, I've got some steady work coming up for the next few months, so I hope things will be a little less insane._

 _I will try to post another chapter by the end of the year. With schools off for the holiday now, my free time should increase a bit. Hopefully I can iron out a number of items going on around here. Fingers crossed._

 _Anyway, I'm glad you've stuck around to read this. Please be sure to leave a review, and I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season. If you're nice, maybe I'll write a Christmas one-shot. :-D_

 _Enjoy, and thanks again for your patience!_

* * *

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 4, 2016  
7:00 PM PDT**_

"Here you go, Chuck."

Morgan handed Chuck a bottle of Chardonnay as Jimmy finished setting up the computers they would need to hack into the Ring's systems to see if they could discover any new information about the organization.

"Did I…miss something?" Jimmy asked.

"My man needs his thinking juice," Morgan replied. "When he gets on the computer like this, he is unstoppable. You know, like Hugh Jackman in _Swordfish_."

Jimmy gave him a bizarre look. "OK, whatever. But I ain't flashing my tits at anybody. I don't care how much you pay me."

"We'll do this in two parts, Jimmy," Chuck said as he settled at his computer. "I'll use my dad's program to get past their firewalls and keep them occupied while you dig in and get anything you can find."

"Where is everybody else?" Morgan asked.

"Case and Ilsa are watching my family. Everybody else is checking the other locations my father found that could be Ring sites. If they find something, they'll let us know."

"Yeah, we have to be proactive," Jimmy added. "After what happened earlier, the gloves are off."

"Do you think they know about the Buy More?" Morgan asked.

"Hopefully not. We don't think Beckman had that information on her computers. The Ring knows we're trying to build an Intersect, and obviously they know about Chuck since they went after Ellie, Devon, and you. If we're lucky, they won't put the pieces together and realize how important this place is."

"And we also have to hope they don't know we've figured out Beckman's computer has been hacked," Chuck said.

Morgan stood there for a moment. He then started jumping up and down. "I got it! I got it!"

"Dude, I beg of you. Switch to decaf," Jimmy groaned tiredly.

"Everybody is looking for where the Ring is, but they're looking for the Intersect, right?" Chuck and Jimmy nodded. "It's that same episode with Jen and Jack Coulton being framed with that fake intel that made them look like the bad guys. Only this time, you play the bad guys!"

"You mean plant some information on Beckman's computer that tells the Ring where the Intersect is being built?" Chuck asked.

Morgan eagerly nodded. Chuck and Jimmy looked at each other. "It could work," Jimmy said. "We feed backdated intel into Beckman's computer placing the Intersect at a location of our choosing. Get them to send everything but the kitchen sink at us and take them out."

"You get on that," Chuck said. "I'll try to get into the Ring's network and see what I can find."

"Good. We'll have to keep an eye on their systems, especially their communications, if we can. The easiest way to beat a surprise attack is to not be surprised."

The two got to work setting things up.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
June 4, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Casey knocked on the door to Sarah's room. "What's the latest?" she asked as she answered the door. "Is Chuck's family secure?"

Casey nodded as Sarah let him enter. "They're in for the night. Barker brought a few of his friends to the hotel for rotating surveillance on them. I made sure Ellie and Devon had a nice room. She's not thrilled about being kept under lock and key, as you can imagine. Maybe Devon can calm her down, order dinner and a movie, something like that."

"What about her father?"

"Still working on the new Intersect." Casey sat down on a chair. "But we got him settled into a room as well."

"And Chuck?"

"Still at the Buy More with Slade and Grimes. Slade planted the false flag into Beckman's computer and Chuck's still working on getting into the Ring's systems."

Sarah exhaled slowly and shook her head. "I wish he'd take a break. Ellie said he can get obsessed with projects like this. They could be there all night. On the other hand, that's probably good news for Jimmy since Alex is still upset about that motorcycle ride they took today. Not that I blame her."

Casey gave a grunt of agreement. "If Forrest ever played _Marry, Screw, Kill_ , Slade would be all three at once."

Sarah managed a weak smile as she slumped into the other chair across from Casey. "I never expected any of this," she said quietly. "Never in a million years could I have guessed all of this happening. I thought we'd get the Intersect data back and move on to the next mission. These last nine months have been nothing short of insane."

"That doesn't mean they were bad."

She stared out into space for a moment before a tiny smile graced her lips. "No, they weren't." She then looked at Casey and raised an eyebrow. "You could have used the phone to update me. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing," Casey quickly replied, even though both of them knew he was lying. "Just…I'm…"

Sarah grinned and stood. She walked over to the bar, poured two glasses of scotch, and handed one of them to Casey.

"…just avoiding Ilsa?" she finished for him. He let out a low growl, making her laugh. "John, the poor woman's been waiting for some quality time with you. And it may be a while before you get another chance. You really need to be with her."

"You sure you have the right to give me relationship advice, Walker?" Casey shot back.

"Would you rather I have Ellie dog you about this? And she's been with the same guy for almost a decade."

Casey grumbled in frustration. Walker would do that, too. He took a sip from his drink. "You're right. These last nine months have been out of control. But I'll still take them over those three months after Bryce left."

"Those were very difficult for me." Sarah sank back in her chair and shook her head. "Everything changed. I felt completely lost. I should have been leading us when Bryce was still around and I didn't. That was my fault."

She turned to Casey and smiled. "Thank God you were there to get me back on track, to get me to do what I was supposed to do and lead the team."

"Bryce was never a team player, Sarah," Casey replied in a much softer tone. "It wasn't his style. Plus, Carina was a lot wilder back then and we all know I'm no people person. Once you stepped up to the plate, it started to click. And by the time they brought in Slade, you did what needed to be done. Good thing, too, given the mess he was in the beginning. But he came around fast. You made that happen."

Sarah chuckled. "I'm glad now we only went on five dates. Neither of us were in a good place at the time. I was just trying to get the last remnants of Bryce out of my head and the poor guy was having so much trouble adjusting to all of this. Alex is a much better fit for him." She shrugged in laugh of disbelief. "I'm still surprised at how different she is from three months ago, but she can keep Jimmy from getting too crazy and he can help her relax and be herself again."

"Agreed. Plus, Bartowski makes more sense for you. The kid's impressive, I can't deny it."

"Sometimes…sometimes I wish he wasn't as gifted as he is. We keep using him on these missions and his life has been in danger so many times in the last nine months. He didn't deserve to have any of this happen."

"But it did," Casey said firmly. "And because he helped us, we stopped a takeover of the government. He'll be done with this and soon. Both of you will. You two deserve to be together."

Sarah's eyes widened. "I never thought I'd hear that coming out of you," she said with a smile.

"I would never stand in the way of someone wanting to be happy. If I did that, everything I fought for in the last twenty-five years would have been for nothing."

Sarah went over to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Knock it off," he grumbled.

She laughed as she let him go. "I'm starting to believe you'll never change, John. I might need to get Ellie on your case after all."

"Don't even think about it."

"Get going, will you? Ilsa needs you."

Casey exhaled, finished his drink and stood, walking towards the door. He turned back. "Thank you for helping to bring Ilsa home. I thought she was dead once, and I don't think I could have gone through that again."

Sarah smiled warmly. "You've always been there for me. You deserve to be happy, too. And I'm going to make sure that happens."

Casey gave a gentle grunt and walked out of the room, returning to Ilsa. He opened the door slowly. Sure enough, she was waiting for him, giving him a look.

"Just…just updating Walker on everything," he stammered.

"Uh-huh," Ilsa replied. "You could have called her. Still avoiding me, John?"

"No, not at all," he quickly replied with the worst poker face imaginable. "It's just that…"

Ilsa raised an eyebrow and undid the sash on her robe, letting it fall off to reveal the silk bra and tiny panties she was wearing underneath.

"I wasn't trying to…" Casey began.

She then pulled out a set of handcuffs from behind her back, dangling them off her finger. Her expression was unmistakable.

Casey exhaled in enervation. "As Slade would say…aaah, hell."

Casey wrapped his arms around her and she kissed him hard.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
June 5, 2016  
8:00 AM PDT**_

Everybody gathered in the conference room to go over the details of what Chuck and Jimmy found on the Ring's servers. Both looked quite tired, and both Sarah and Alex were quite upset with them, although for different reasons. At the other end of room, Ilsa sported a wide grin and Casey looked like he was just caught cheating on a test.

"We were able to uncover some of the front companies the Ring was using to launder their funds," Chuck began. "We found over three dozen, but they probably have a lot more than that, everything from mom-and-pop stores to huge corporations. We're talking billions of dollars."

"Can't worry about those for now," Casey replied. "We send the IRS after any of them and the Ring we'll know we're onto them. We'll have to seize those funds from the inside."

"Here's the good news," Jimmy continued between large sips of coffee. "Morgan's idea worked like a charm. We altered some of Beckman's inventory reports to show the CIA controlled a warehouse out in this area and had equipment moved in a couple of weeks after the wedding. Everything you would need to build an Intersect. Servers, monitors, surge protectors, the whole nine."

"Did they take the bait?" Carina asked.

"We think so," Chuck replied. "A few hours after we planted the info, there was a flurry of activity on their systems. I found emails going back and forth, and Jimmy found hits on what we think they use to communicate between agents. They know we're building a new Intersect, and hopefully they think this place is where we're doing it."

"Jimmy, call the local office and tell them to keep their eyes on that place," Sarah said. "Then you and Alex keep monitoring the Ring's network. Chuck and I will escort Ellie and their father back to the Buy More and keep an eye on them there. Everybody else, be ready to go. This could go from zero to full throttle in a heartbeat."

Everybody nodded their agreement and set about to their tasks. Chuck and Sarah walked down the hallway towards Ellie's and Stephen's hotel rooms.

"You don't look happy with me," Chuck said softly.

Sarah stopped and stared briefly ahead before shaking her head clear. "No, it's just…"

"What?"

"I kind of…missed you last night. You were right, Chuck. I keep flipping back and forth between being an agent and wanting to just be Sarah. You needed to work last night; we needed your help. I guess I just wanted…"

Chuck took his face in her hands and gave her a gentle kiss. "I missed you, too. But the good news is, I wasn't in any danger this time…apart from Morgan arguing with Jimmy about what will be the better movie this year: _Suicide Squad_ or _Doctor Strange_."

Sarah laughed. "Aren't you the one who wanted me to be Captain Marvel? I can't accept the role even if they offered it to me. I work for the government! They won't even let us do commercials!"

"Yeah, but how cool would that have been? I mean, Brie Larson's a good choice if the rumors are correct, but you would have been awesome. And there are plenty of people who would agree with me. Really, it's your own fault."

"My fault?"

"If you weren't such an amazing and beautiful person, you wouldn't have millions of adoring fans that are now disappointed you won't be in the movie."

Sarah rolled her eyes at that. Chuck pulled her close to him. "I don't know. I mean, once this is over, what do you want to do?" he asked.

She was silent for a moment. She then wrapped her arms around Chuck. "As long as I have you, it doesn't matter what happens after this. Wherever we go, it'll be wonderful because we'll be together."

Chuck gave her a big smile, which brightened Sarah's mood even more. She gave him an ardent kiss, running her fingers through his hair.

~/^\~

Jimmy slumped into a chair at the desk in his room and checked his laptop, which was still accessing the Ring's network. He went through the program he was running while taking another long drink from his coffee, making the occasional adjustment.

"OK," he said tiredly after a few moments. "The computer is scanning anything going through the Ring's systems and matching any code words they use with the ones we've cracked thus far. If one of them comes up or something else unusual happens, it'll beep at you."

He got up and turned towards Alex. He then looked away in shame. "I admit, that wasn't my proudest moment yesterday, the thing with the motorcycle."

"Not your first time, though," she replied, to which Jimmy gave a little nod. "Carina and I were talking last night, and she told me a few stories."

"I'm sure she did. The boat jump, the grenade, jumping onto the SUV, the lion …"

"What lion?"

Jimmy's eyes shot wide open. "Never mind." He exhaled in frustration. "I know I don't use my brains out there most of the time. Which is ironic since I'm supposed to be very smart. It's…maybe it's just left over baggage from my days working alone before they put me with Sarah and the others. I think she was right. I was trying to spy my way into an early grave when I started. I just…I still have a hard time having any regard for myself."

"In the past, maybe." Jimmy looked up and stared at Alex. "But Carina agrees with me that you have no limit to what you'll do for the people you care about. It's not that you hate yourself necessarily, although it's true you used to. You are just determined to hang on to what you now have. You joined Casey to retake that village and you rescued Carina from those separatists single-handedly. You also wouldn't let her rescue Cole on her own; you made sure she stayed safe. And you had no reason rescue me again and again, but you did it anyway.

"I was mad at you yesterday, sure. I thought what you did was dangerous and stupid. But given time to think about it, what else could have been done? We had to get those agents away from Ellie and Devon and make sure they didn't discover the Buy More. I can't sit here and say I wouldn't have made a few of the same choices myself. We had to act on instinct. And despite how you can get sometimes, you're still here and so is everybody you've ever had to protect. Including me."

Alex took his face in her hands and gave him a kiss. "Just…try to dial down the crazy stuff, OK? You won't be a very good Intersect if you're dead. We need you. I know I do…badly."

Jimmy gave her a shy smile and returned her kiss, gently caressing her. "I will."

He tilted his head towards the bathroom. "I'm going to go take a shower. Yell if there's a problem."

"You got it," she replied, and he departed for the bathroom. She sat at the desk and kept an eye on the monitor. She could hear the shower running behind her. She was tempted to join him in there, but work had to come first.

She sat back, taking a sip from the coffee she got from the room service tray, and tried to make heads or tails out of the search program that was running. She thought about what she had told Jimmy two days ago, that she wanted to be here, be part of the team…if that was possible. Certainly, they would need someone to replace Sarah, and her skill set was respectable in its own right, albeit a bit rusty since she had just returned to the field. But she had always worked alone; any instance when she needed a partner, they were assigned against their will. To say she had a bad reputation among her fellow agents was putting it mildly. She knew she wasn't the same person she was three months ago. Sarah and the others made that happen, especially Jimmy. But would they accept her?

"You OK?"

Alex jumped in her seat. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Jimmy said softly, having finished his shower. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and Alex was already thinking he was overdressed.

"I'm fine. Just…" Alex let the words drift off.

"What's wrong?"

"I was just thinking about what I told you on the beach the other day, how I hope to become part of this. I know it was a bit of a playful moment for us, but I really do want to join the team. Not just because of you…although you have certainly made me feel welcome." She reached forward and gave him a kiss. "I think I was right about what I said when Cole lost Amir. That being alone in the spy world takes something away from you. And now…things are so different. I'm not looking at the world the same way I did when we first met. Do you think the others will see that? Would they trust me on the team?"

Jimmy was quiet for a moment. He then pulled her close to him. "Six years ago, Langston Graham called me into his office. He told me about the show, how Sarah, Bryce, Carina, and Casey were actual spies and the show was their cover. He then said Bryce had disappeared and he needed me to replace him on the team and on the show. I did everything I could to convince him I was the wrong person. I had absolutely no confidence in me to work in such a high-profile role with that gifted of a group. But he wouldn't be dissuaded. Those first few months, I was scared out of my mind. I was always afraid of making a mistake and jeopardizing everyone's lives. And I was even more scared when Sarah asked me out on a date. But they worked with me. They were patient with me. I could trust them and they trusted me. And they were the first people who ever really did that for me.

"I'd like to think they would do that for you, too. There's no question you have the talent, and you've already proven you're not the same person we first met. You want to get Chuck and Sarah out of the spy business, and you want to help us take down the Ring."

Jimmy took his face in her hands and smiled. "And I'm a different person today thanks to you. I mean, anybody who can make me get my head out of my ass should qualify by default."

Alex grinned and kissed him hard, pressing herself up against him. She became more heated feeling Jimmy's large frame around her and reached down to pull his towel away.

Jimmy's laptop started beeping incessantly.

"Dammit," Jimmy growled. "Figures my own computer interrupts us." He looked at the monitor. He then reached for his smartphone.

"Case, it's Jimmy. Get everybody ready and load up your favorite toys. The Ring's about to make a house call."

 _ **Grosvenor Boulevard and Marina Freeway – Los Angeles, CA  
June 5, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Three large vans drove up to the warehouse, passing by a cherry picker being used by a local cable company to fix the lines. Two men exited one of the vans and began to scan the area for heat sources coming from the warehouse.

The person on the cherry picker pulled out a radio. "Time to party," Cole said quietly from just behind a set of cable lines.

"Copy that," Casey replied, waiting on one of the catwalks. "Everybody in position?"

Carina, Jimmy, Alex, and Ilsa responded in the affirmative from throughout the building. Fifty yards away from the warehouse, three dozen federal agents patiently waited in tactical gear with automatic weapons at the ready.

"Call it out, Cole," Casey ordered.

Cole used a pair of night vision goggles to observe all sides of the warehouse. "Looks like they're scanning for heat sources. The two are getting back in their van and the three vans are splitting up…now they're stopping."

"Are they sending people in?" Carina asked.

"No." Cole frowned. "What are those wankers doing?" he muttered to himself.

"The intel said they were going to be here already. We've been here for four hours and they're just coming to take a peek?" Ilsa inquired. "Something's not right."

Cole kept an eye on the three vans. Each of the vans then turned and backed up slowly towards one of the sides of the warehouse.

The roof on each van opened, and an agent rose up from each one. All three were shouldering rocket launchers.

"GET OUT!" Cole screamed.

Casey, Ilsa, Carina, Jimmy, and Alex ran for their lives as the three agents launched rockets at the building. Each of them exploded, decimating the entire structure. Casey and Ilsa dove out of one side of the warehouse and landed hard into a large dumpster on one side. Carina, Jimmy, and Alex broke through the windows on the opposite side. Carina and Alex held on as Jimmy fired his piton gun, the cable swinging the three across to the warehouse roof next door.

Cole immediately got out his sniper rifle and opened fire on one of the vans, killing one of the agents. He continued to fire, but the van got away as Casey and Ilsa pulled themselves out of the dumpster. A half-dozen agents from the van nearest them tried to get out, but both of them sprayed the area with a pair of Heckler and Koch MPK5's, taking all of them out. Carina and Alex ran for the ladder with weapons at the ready as Jimmy leaped down from the roof, still attached to his harness. He opened up on the third van with a pair of MAC-11's as he landed, taking out the occupants of that van. Carina and Alex ran out just as the first van got to them. They fired away with their weapons, decimating the vehicle.

Cole brought the cherry picker down as the other five ran towards him. Casey ordered the other agents to move in and seal off the area.

"What happened? What the hell happened?" Alex growled.

"No way in hell they'd destroy that place if they thought the equipment was in it," Casey said in equal fury. "They would have tried to grab it first."

"Then how…"

"They played us. They fuckin' played us!" Jimmy cursed, enough steam coming out of his ears to elect a new Pope. "We waited four hours. They should have been here before now. They pulled the same move on us that we pulled on them."

"Goddammit," Carina said in a huff. "This was the stupidest thing we've done since letting Case give the thank-you speech at the _People's Choice Awards_."

"But why make us wait…" Ilsa began.

"They made sure we were in the place before they attacked," Jimmy concluded. "They wanted us dead."

"But how did they keep an eye on the place without us knowing it?" Cole asked.

Casey paused for a moment before slamming his fist into the van. "Satellite recon. Beckman's mole tipped them off and must have ordered satellite recon on the warehouse. That's what they needed the time for: to get the satellite in position to watch us."

Carina immediately got on her smartphone. "Sarah's phone went right into voicemail."

"So does Chuck's and Mr. Bartowski's," Jimmy added.

The six agents looked at each other, and the same horrifying thought went through their minds.

"Let's go!" Casey shouted as they ran for one of the agency vehicles to drive back to the Buy More.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 5, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Sarah walked out of the office where Chuck and Stephen were working on the Intersect and began to stretch, walking around the main floor. The store closed an hour ago, and Big Mike and Morgan had locked up and left already. She hadn't heard anything thus far from the team, who was waiting for the Ring to show up at the warehouse. She checked her watch. She knew she'd have to drag Chuck and his father back to the hotel; no way would they leave if Sarah left them to their own devices. Or device, in this case, of obsessing over projects.

She began to walk back towards the office. A figure grabbed her from behind. She found a knife at her throat.

"So, the great Sarah Walker. Not just another pretty face," her captor hissed.

"Hey, take the wallet. It's yours," she whispered in fear, trying to pretend she was simply an actress.

"I'm afraid your acting is much better on the show than it is now. Isn't that right, Special Agent Walker?"

Sarah turned carefully to look at her captor. "Who are you?"

"I'm the person whose life you changed many years ago," Daniel Shaw hissed. "When you murdered my wife."

Sarah's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

The blade pressed further into her throat. "Don't…just don't," Shaw's grip on Sarah tightened even more. "I've been given a chance to right this egregious wrong, and I intend to take full advantage of it. Your friends? They're dead by now." Sarah began to shake. "Cute little trick you tried of putting false information on your boss' computer. It was so good, I convinced my new employers to try it themselves. And thanks to a few 'friends' in the government, the Ring was ready for your pathetic attempt."

Shaw started dragging Sarah towards the back. "As much as I will enjoy making you suffer as much as I have, there is one task I must complete first. They want your boyfriend alive. Although that does leave a lot of room to inflict pain and suffering on him."

Shaw took out a set of handcuffs and put them on Sarah, looping them through the rail around the Nerd Herd desk. "And best of all, you'll have to watch."

"Let her go."

Shaw turned towards the voice. He smiled at seeing Chuck there. "Well, I must thank you for making my job easier," Shaw teased.

Chuck began to flash, seeing the entire file on Daniel Shaw. His transcripts, pictures of him with Evelyn at Iowa, and many images of Shaw working as a very effective spy.

Chuck doubled-over from the pain of the rather intense flash. Shaw was taken back. "Amazing. I'm not really sure why the Ring wants you so badly. You seem to cower at the littlest thing."

"Don't do this," Chuck almost pleaded as he straightened up again. "If you want me, let her go. She doesn't have to be hurt."

"Oh, but she does." Shaw's tone was borderline maniacal. "The Ring wants her dead. They want all of her friends dead. And they are. She's the only one who remains."

Shaw started to walk towards Chuck. "But before I do that, let's see how much she can handle her boyfriend in pain."

Shaw raised his knife, and Chuck began to flash. A flurry of different combat styles flooded his mind, and he doubled-over again in pain. Chuck could barely stay on his feet. Shaw cackled and got ready to attack.

Chuck spun and kicked the knife out of Shaw's hands. Shaw stood in complete surprise as Chuck straightened up again, gritting his teeth from the pain of his flash. Shaw came at him, but Chuck spun out of the way and landed a kick at the back of Shaw's head, sending him stumbling forward. Shaw came back and tried to throw several punches but Chuck blocked each one. Shaw spun and sent a kick at Chuck's head, but Chuck ducked down and shot his hand up to grab Shaw's leg, throwing him to the floor. Shaw quickly got back up and went after Chuck again, but Chuck sidestepped him, throwing him across the floor. Shaw landed next to the handcuffed Sarah.

Chuck began to move towards Shaw, but Shaw took out a gun and held it to Sarah's head. "I wanted to make her suffer. I would have loved to kill you right in front of her, and the last thing she would ever see in this world is your cold, dead corpse. Alas, I'll just have to settle for killing her now, just like the Ring already killed your friends."

Another flash went through Chuck, this one even more intense than before, causing even greater pain. Chuck fell to the floor as a result. Shaw cocked the gun aimed at Sarah and began to pull the trigger.

Shots rang out, and Shaw quickly ducked behind the Nerd Herd desk. He peeked over it to see Stephen with a gun out and firing away. He prepared to return fire when the sound of shattering glass filled the store. Shaw turned to see the team charge in guns blazing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a disc. He set it and threw it at them. They dove for cover as the disc exploded, damaging a section of the store. Shaw used the opportunity to sprint past them and out of the store. Casey, Ilsa, Jimmy, and Alex gave chase, but Shaw was gone into the night.

Carina quickly went to Sarah and uncuffed her. She sprinted to Chuck, who was still on the floor.

"Chuck!" she cried, cradling him in her arms. "Chuck!"

"Sarah," Chuck muttered, slowly coming around as the pain from his flash abated. He reached out and she took his hand. "Sarah, are you OK?"

"Yes, yes I'm OK." She held him more tightly as Stephen knelt by his side to check on his son.

"What's going on?" Carina demanded. "Who the hell was that?"

"His name…his name is Daniel Shaw," Chuck said slowly, trying to shake off the effects the flashing had on him. "Former agent, disappeared years ago after the death of his wife."

"He thinks I murdered her?" Sarah whispered breathlessly.

"She was also an agent. Evelyn Shaw." Chuck slowly sat up. "She was killed in Prague thirteen years ago on a mission."

Sarah's face paled. "I was in Prague for two months back then. Graham sent me there, but…I killed his wife?"

 _ **W Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
June 6, 2016  
12:00 AM PDT**_

"I want answers."

Shaw was beyond livid. He figured the Ring withholding information on him would happen, but the knowledge that Chuck Bartowski had the skills that he did would have been of great benefit. And to discover the Ring had failed in eliminating Sarah's team, despite the help he gave them, made this night an even greater disaster.

"The information on Bartowski was on a need-to-know basis," the man replied. The same man who brought him to California in the first place.

"Clearly you underestimated all of them again. Just ask the team you sent to kill Walker's friends. Oh, I'm sorry. You can't do that. They're dead."

"Don't try to…" the man began.

"Don't try to threaten me," Shaw shot back instantly. "Kill me if you want to. You'd be doing me a favor. Get this into your head right now. You offered your assistance to help me kill Walker. What I need right now is information. I need to know who this Chuck Bartowski is and why Walker and her friends are so determined to protect him.

The man exhaled. "It has to do with a project called the Intersect. We've been trying to get our hands on it, but we have been unsuccessful so far. In fact, I think you may have met its inventor tonight."

Shaw thought for a moment. "You mean the old man who shot at me?"

The man nodded. "His name is Stephen Bartowski, Chuck's father. We believe Chuck possesses the Intersect, and we have every intention of getting it from him."

"What is the Intersect? Explain it to me."

"Explain it?" The man gave a tiny smile. "I'll do you one better. After I show you what we have, you will have exactly what you need to kill Walker and bring us both Bartowskis. Are you willing to take that extra step with us?"

Shaw stared at the man. He wasn't sure what the man was proposing. But he failed in killing Sarah and capturing Chuck. And the Ring failed in killing her team despite all of the intel he gave them. Shaw needed an edge, an advantage against them.

"Whatever it takes," Shaw told the man. "I want Walker dead."


	37. Upping the Ante

_And once again, I have to apologize for my tardiness. I got caught up in working overtime last week and spent the first part of this week with an illness. I used to be so good at cranking these stories out. I don't know what happened with me. I will say this though; we are starting to make the turn towards the conclusion of this long journey. At this point, I'm projecting between 43 and 46 chapters. It makes for a pretty big story, I do admit. But I do appreciate you taking the ride with me._

 _As I'm sure you'll notice, I'm doing my best to balance the characters and give everybody some text time. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. But like my two Next Generation stories, there are a lot of characters who are involved. But that makes sense. After all, wouldn't you do anything for Chuck and Sarah if you were in this universe? :-D_

 _I'll try to get the next chapter out within the two weeks. However, I'll be starting a three-month substitution as a mathematics teacher in a local high school so I can't guarantee anything. I'm not nervous about it; I'm scared out of my mind. I haven't been in the classroom in ten years and that was a different town. If you see someone being led away from a suburban Chicago high school in a straitjacket, you'll know it was me. :-D_

 _Anyway, thanks for reading. Please leave reviews, please note this still remains the property of NBC and Fake Empire productions, and please have a better 2017 than you did a 2016._

* * *

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 5, 2016  
10:00 PM PDT**_

Sarah kept a close watch on Chuck, holding his hand as Carina contacted General Beckman and briefed her on the events of the evening over a secure line. An NSA cleanup crew fixed the damaged parts of the store while the rest of the team kept an eye on the perimeter to make sure nobody would try anything.

"What did you see, Chuck?" Stephen asked his son.

"I saw the file on Daniel Shaw," Chuck replied softly, still in pain from the flashes he had. "He was an agent in the CIA. He was recruited out of the University of Iowa where he met Evelyn. Both of them worked as agents for a few years before getting married. Then she went to Prague and was killed there."

"Confirmed," Carina said, having done a search on the information from Chuck's flash. "According to our records, she was on a mission to find what she thought was an arms dealer. Graham ordered her to make contact with someone in their organization. Try to get as much information as she could and eliminate them after that."

"So why does Shaw think you killed her, Sarah?" Stephen asked. "Why were you in Prague at that time?"

"It was my first assignment," she replied. "It was my Red Test, right before I was put on the CAT Squad with Carina. I was given information on what Graham thought was a mole inside the CIA and my job was to eliminate them." Her breathing became labored. "I'm walking through this park and…I…I heard a shot fired. I ducked out of the way and hid behind a tree. I peeked out and I saw someone in the distance raise a gun at me. I fired back and…"

Sarah fell back into the chair. "Oh, my God. I did kill her. I killed his wife."

"No, Sarah. Don't do that." Carina replied forcefully, grabbing her best friend's shoulders. "You didn't kill her. That was self-defense. Do you even know who you were shooting at? Did you see her face?"

"No…I mean, it was dark, but I…I killed her…"

"You had no clue who that was. Your life was in danger, and you had less than a second to think about it. OK? How the hell could you know who you were shooting at? The Ring found Shaw and fed him this bullshit in order to get to us."

"But what do we do?" Chuck asked. "They must know now we're doing something in the store."

"That's the biggest problem," Stephen replied with a sigh. "It'd take time to set up a new location and transfer everything I've done so far. Time you don't have. The flashes are just going to get worse."

"I'll talk with Case and Jimmy," Carina replied. "They can come up with a few new ways to keep this place secure. And let's keep you at the hotel while the store is open so nobody from the Ring can just slip in through the front door. If you need to do things with the setup here, we'll come back at night when the store is closed and it'll be easier to guard you."

Stephen nodded. "Let's talk to John and Jimmy."

The two left, leaving Chuck and Sarah alone. Chuck looked up at her and still saw the hurt on her face. He reached up and gently caressed it.

"It's OK, Sarah," he said gently.

"No, it's not OK," Sarah said as her eyes welled up. "I saw what the Intersect did to you when Shaw put the gun to my head. It almost killed you!" She began to shake uncontrollably. "I did this. I brought this man to us. To you. I put you in danger…"

"No you didn't!" Chuck exclaimed, although his voice was still a bit weak. "Carina's right. You didn't kill Evelyn. Shaw is psychotic. I saw it in his eyes. The Ring must have set you up, and his rage just locked on to what they told him. You're not capable of murder."

"But I have, Chuck. All of us have had to kill in our past. You've seen it yourself."

"I've seen you defend yourselves. And I've seen you defend others. Me especially. And after being with all of you the past nine months, I'm sorry. None of you are capable of murdering an innocent person in cold blood. I will never believe that."

"But…what happened in Prague…"

"OK, what if you really did kill her? Who were you at the time? You were a scared rookie agent who was thrown to the wolves. Someone shot at you and you shot back. What else could you have done?"

Chuck sat up slowly and put his arms around Sarah. "This was not you, Sarah, because it CAN'T be you. I don't care what your past was like. The Sarah I know isn't capable of what Shaw thinks you did. He wants someone to blame for the hurt he's felt. But we'll find out what happened. That much I guarantee."

He gently took his face in her hands and wiped away a few stray tears. "I'm going to do whatever I can to make things right. What you've meant to me is beyond comprehension."

Sarah looked into his eyes. It was funny that he always drew strength and confidence from her. Right now, the tables were turned. She felt that confidence from him, that sense of calm that she needed right then. She could not have felt more fortunate to have walked into the Buy More nine months ago.

She placed her lips on his and kissed him with an increasing passion and hunger, gripping him almost to the point of drawing blood.

"I love you, Chuck," she whispered into his ear, pressing her face against his. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too," he replied. "I'd do anything for you."

She pulled back a bit. "And about that. How you risked your life trying to take on Shaw…"

Chuck's eyes widened. "I…I was just trying to defend you…"

Sarah lunged at Chuck's lips once again, cutting off his response with an even more fiery kiss. "Thank you," she said, cradling his face in her hands.

Chuck gave her that smile, the one that could soothe her soul no matter how turbulent it was. They continued to kiss.

 _ **W Hotel – Los Angeles, CA  
**_ _ **June 6, 2016  
8:00 AM PDT**_

"What is the Intersect?"

Shaw's mood hadn't changed much since the prior night when he barely got away from capturing Chuck Bartowski and killing Sarah Walker. The Ring hadn't been up-front with him about the importance of Bartowski, and their incompetence, despite the help he gave them, meant that the rest of Sarah's team was still alive.

"The government needed a resource to utilize all of the data their agents collected from the field and analyze it for patterns faster than a human could," Shaw's Ring contact replied. "The Intersect was designed to do this. Stephen Bartowski…the man who shot at you last night…invented it back in the 1980s after a failed attempt at implanting a new personality into the memories of a volunteer British agent. He theorized that an image could contain subliminal data and whoever saw the image would know that information. The first person it was tried on supposedly went insane and committed suicide, but that was not the case. He's now part of Walker's team. Agent Slade."

"So now the Intersect has become a success?"

The man nodded. "We thought we had gotten to one of their agents, a Bryce Larkin. But he stole the Intersect data before we could get our hands on it and sent it to Chuck Bartowski. Every attempt to retrieve the data has failed…except one. We managed to retain some of the files the newest Intersect had despite Walker's team attacking us and stealing it back from us. Some of which included combat skills. We think implanting those into your mind will give you the advantage you need to give us what we want. And what you want."

Shaw stared at the man. He could barely fathom what the Ring was proposing. He would see a bunch of pictures and then have the same skills Bartowski used to defeat him last night? It sounded ludicrous, but it would also explain a lot. How else can some nerd who worked in a Buy More suddenly become part of all of this? If he wanted to kill Walker, he needed an edge against her team. And Bartowski.

"What do I have to do?"

 _ **Unknown Location  
**_ _ **June 6, 2016  
8:00 AM**_

Clyde Decker once again found himself in front of the Ring leadership.

"Perhaps you can give us a reason why you should not be eliminated," the leader asked from the center of the table. "In spite of the intel provided by Agent Shaw, you still failed in eliminating Walker's team."

"Your agents were sloppy," Decker replied. "I set up the location and gave you the satellite recon you needed to kill Walker's team. I cannot be held responsible for their incompetence. Their stupidity cost them their lives."

Decker stepped forward. "You pride yourself on being methodical and thorough, yet you are trusting an agent who is blinded by his hatred for Agent Walker?"

"What do you suggest?" the man at the far right asked.

"General Beckman has been playing this close to the vest. Which means not even people in the DNI knows what is going on between her and Walker's team."

Decker looked at each of the five leaders of the Ring one-by-one. "We start by taking her out of the picture."

"How do you propose to do that?" the Ring leader asked.

"Exactly what we tried to do to Walker's team. Only this time, we'll succeed."

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 6, 2016  
2:00 AM PDT**_

Carina looked at the doors to the hotel rooms for the hundredth time in the last hour. Casey, Ilsa, Alex, and Jimmy remained at the Buy More with the NSA crew to bolster the security of the store. Chuck and Sarah were in for the night, as were Mr. Bartowski, Ellie, and Devon. She was determined to keep watch, even though Cole offered to have the agents he brought in keep an eye on the Bartowskis. But an angry glare from her and a steadfast shake of her head were all Cole needed to know that she had to do this herself. Not that he could blame her. From what he had found out about Carina, she had been best friends with Sarah since both of them were part of the CAT Squad over a dozen years ago. Certainly he could appreciate Carina's loyalty to her boss, even if he didn't have as much experience. But then, he hadn't spent a lot of time working with a team of spies like this. And spending time with Carina and her friends made him the see the advantages rather quickly.

"How are you holding up?" he asked as he walked up to her after checking that his own people were prepared for tomorrow.

"I'm fine," Carina replied in a brusque fashion.

Cole shook his head and laughed. "I think I'd believe you more had you said you were going to give up partying for Lent."

"Not in the mood for jokes," she hissed.

"I apologize. But you seem to be taking this personally and that's not really you. Surely all of you have been in danger before."

Carina exhaled slowly and leaned against the wall. "We have. This just…you're right. This feels personal. Shaw thinks Sarah killed his wife? No way would Sarah do that, not murder someone for no reason."

"Sounds like he's pretty convinced she did. Very brazen of him to turn to the Ring and then help them try to kill all of us."

"He's not thinking straight. He lost his wife and has probably been looking for revenge ever since."

"That's the hardest type of person to stop: someone with nothing to lose."

"Yeah. I…I'm just…"

"I understand." Cole looked at her for a moment. "Sarah's a good leader. That much is apparent. I can see why all of you would go to such great lengths to protect Chuck and her."

Carina nodded. "We've been best friends for years. Well, most of that time."

"What do you mean?"

"We were part of this special group within the CIA when we first started: the Clandestine Attack Team, or CAT Squad. There was Sarah, me, Zondra, and Amy. Zondra was tough as nails, and Amy was the party girl. But Amy eventually betrayed the rest of us, and the relationship soured between Sarah and Zondra. I don't think they've spoken since."

"And you?"

"In the latter part of our time together, we recovered a large diamond, the Nadan-I-Noor diamond. It was meant to be used in the purchase of weapons and equipment for a slew of terrorist groups, but an ambitious supervisor in the DEA contacted me and wanted me to take the diamond to use as a bargaining chip to obtain routes and manifests for a group of ships rumored to be smuggling heroin to the States. He promised a big role in the DEA in return.

"I knew the CAT Squad was going to break up sooner rather than later, so I jumped at the chance. Except when I stole the diamond and Sarah tried to find me, she was captured by the man we stole it from in the first place. Somehow, she managed to get free and even helped me get the job with the DEA by getting that shipping data. But then she walked away from me. She felt betrayed and I can't say I blame her."

"Then you reunited?"

"Six years later. They were changing the format of the show so Sarah would be the leader and someone else would play the seductress. It was Sarah's idea to have me join the team and play Jill Garrett. That first time back was very uncomfortable. I was a bit surprised she would trust me to do this, but we talked and talked, and I understood what she needed me to do. I couldn't go off on my own; I couldn't put me first. I had to think of the team. The more I tried to do that, the more she trusted me. And as time went on, we grew close again and the team became even more successful."

"That's putting it mildly. But it doesn't really sound like you lost your playful edge. Certainly not based on what I've seen of you."

Carina looked at Cole and a smile drew across her face. "Well, I did find it fun to torture John about our little adventure in Prague ten years ago. Managed to handcuff him to a bed and steal some intel both the DEA and NSA wanted. And I admit to teasing Jimmy way too much in the beginning. The poor guy was afraid of making any little mistake at first, and me practically throwing myself at him didn't help. But boy did my opinion change of him when he rescued me from that separatist group by himself. When I think about it, I have to thank Sarah for that, too. She made him a better agent and he went to the mat for me."

Carina turned to face Cole. "I owe it to Sarah to keep Chuck and her protected and get them out of the spy business."

"And after that?"

Carina froze. "I…I don't know. I never gave much thought to that. We've just been so focused on getting the Intersect out of Chuck I didn't even consider what would happen after that."

"I'd imagine the team would stay together with someone to take Sarah's place. Why argue with success, especially when you'll still carry an Intersect?"

Cole slid his hand along Carina's face. "If it helps, I'm not planning on going anywhere. Despite everything we've been through, it's been quite an experience." He gently placed his lips on hers and gave her a gentle kiss. "Thanks mostly to you."

Carina looked into Cole's eyes. She was starting to understand what Sarah went through with Bryce and then with Chuck. That connection with someone else. She never expected to have the same feelings so many others have with another person, but that was how she acted in the past. It was a different day.

She grabbed the back of Cole's head and kissed him with an overdose of want and desire. She back Cole up into the wall and hooked her leg around him, grinding hard against him as they went after one another, two sets of searing lips battling each other…

"Ugh, I'm gonna throw up."

They broke away quickly and turned to see Casey looking at them in disgust.

"Goddamn Walker," Casey growled. "Now it's spreading."

Carina matched his look of disgust. "Ilsa, I thought you were going to get him to lighten up."

"I'm working on it!" she replied with some offense. "It's not easy. It's like trying to chisel with a toothpick."

"How are things at the Buy More?" Cole asked to refocus everybody.

"Forrest and Slade are finishing work there," Casey replied. "Every square inch of the perimeter is now monitored. And if there's a traffic or wireless cam within ten city blocks, we have access. Slade's setting up extra security on Mr. Bartowski's equipment."

"They'll be back in a couple of hours," Ilsa said. "Why don't you two get some rest. We'll keep watch out here."

"I can't…" Carina began.

"Thanks. We appreciate it," Cole interrupted, gently taking Carina's elbow and leading her to their room. "Come on, you. Even a cold-hearted badass needs the occasional nap."

Carina raised an eyebrow. "Mmm, you called me a badass."

"If the six-inch stiletto fits…" Cole said in a smooth voice.

"You do know how to turn a girl on," Carina purred, sliding her hands across Cole's chest and proceeding lower. He grabbed her and took her to their room.

 _ **Unknown Location – Los Angeles, CA  
**_ _ **June 6, 2016  
11:00 AM PDT**_

Daniel Shaw was led into an empty room with a large monitor sitting on a desk. The monitor was attached to what looked like a laptop powerful enough to make any gamer cry tears of joy. He wasn't entirely certain what was about to happen. But if what this man was proposing could give him the abilities he saw out of Bartowski, it was a risk he was willing to take.

"Keep your eyes fixed on the monitor," the man said as he stood in front of the laptop and put on a pair of sunglasses. "Ready?"

Shaw nodded, and the man punched a series of passwords into the keyboard. He stepped back as the monitor began to fill with images. Shaw was frozen in place as the images flashed by at an increasing pace. Shaw began to yell in pain as the images began to overload his mind.

The monitor shut off, and Shaw fell unconscious to the ground. The man took off his glasses and waited patiently for Shaw to wake up. After a few minutes, Shaw's eyes fluttered open and he grimaced from the intense headache he had.

"OK, so the Intersect is hurting Bartowski, too?" Shaw asked. "This is the worst my head's felt since the day after that Orange Bowl party we had."

"We're not sure why," the man replied. "Our only working theory is that this new Intersect was designed specifically for Bryce Larkin. It's incompatible with anyone else."

"What?" Shaw was livid. "You put this thing in knowing it would kill me?"

"You don't have the full version like we think Bartowski has. We only put in what you'll need to handle Walker and her team."

"How do I know this worked?"

The man smiled and reached for Shaw, pulling him to his feet. He then pulled out a small radio. "Send them in," he said.

A group of six rather intimidating agents entered the room and surrounded Shaw. They began to approach him. Suddenly his mind was filled with instructions on various styles of fighting and tactics.

The first agent attacked. Shaw ducked under the agent's punch and hooked his arm, swinging over the man's back to land a kick at the face of the agent next to him. He landed and brought his knee up into the first agent, making him double over. He brought his other knee up to nail the man in the face. As that man fell, Shaw pirouetted off the back of that man to attack the agent on the other side, throwing a hook at the man to send him back, following it up with a spinning back kick to take them down. Two other agents tried to attack, but Shaw did a backflip, nailing both agents in the face with his feet. He landed as the last agent pulled out a knife and went after him. The agent lunged twice, but Shaw avoided each attempt. On the third try, Shaw kicked up, and the agent's arm went under his outstretched leg. Shaw clamped his leg down, trapping the man's arm. He jerked his leg hard, breaking the man's arm and forcing him to drop the knife. He then let go, planted with that foot, and spun to send a hard kick into the middle of the man's chest. The agent flew across the room and crashed into the wall at the opposite end.

Shaw looked around in wide-eyed shock. He quickly looked at the clock on the other wall.

Only ten seconds had passed. Shaw couldn't believe it, but the Ring contact remained expressionless.

"I believe now you see the advantages of the Intersect…and why we would want it," the man said.

He then reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. Shaw had another flash. He ducked, spun around, and grabbed the man's wrist, taking the gun out of his hands and aiming it at him. He pulled the trigger.

The gun clicked.

"You didn't really think I would let you take a loaded gun from me, did you?" the man said with considerable amusement.

Shaw's breathing finally slowed from the rush of the two flashes. He threw the gun at the man's feet.

"When this is over, I want this out of my head," Shaw said calmly.

"If you do what we've asked for, we'll be able to," the man replied. "Bring us Bartowski, retrieve the new Intersect, and make sure Walker and her team are dead."

Shaw nodded and walked out of the room.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 6, 2016  
9:00 AM PDT**_

Chuck slowly stirred in the bed. He found his arms wrapped around Sarah, and she was holding them tightly as she slept. He sighed and gave a tiny smile. He no longer felt the pain he did last night from his flashes, although he still felt a bit dizzy. He looked over at the clock radio on the nightstand. The long rest did him a lot of good, and he hoped it did Sarah a lot of good, too. He had never seen her act the way she did last night, and it scared him a bit. But he understood why. Everyone on the team had stories from their past that had affected how they were now. So did he. However, Sarah was always there for her friends and for him. They relied on her to keep the team together and she never failed. He wanted to make sure she got that in return.

He gently pressed his cheek against her sleeping form, and she moaned contentedly for a moment before stirring awake herself. She reached up and gently caressed his cheek.

"How are you?" Chuck asked softly.

"I was about to ask you the same question," she replied, turning around. She gently pushed him on his back and lay on top of him.

"I'm much better, although I can still feel the effects a little bit." He gently brushed her hair back and cradled her face in his hand. "I was more worried about you."

She smiled and reached down to kiss him. "Hey, are you trying to take over my job?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do as well strutting around in lingerie or a bikini. And let's face it. I don't care how cute Jimmy is, kissing him on the show would just be awkward."

He gave her an eyebrow dance and Sarah laughed hysterically. She kissed him even harder. "You should know, funny just moved into a tie with caring, sweet, and handsome in the things I love about you."

"Yes! Finally!" Chuck's grin was ear-to-ear and moving wider.

"Have you been up long?"

"I woke up just before you did."

Sarah reached behind her to check her smartphone. "Cole left a text. He has his people over at the Buy More. Jimmy and Alex will go over there and update Morgan and Big Mike on things." She put the phone down. "How about we accompany your father and Ellie there tonight so they can work on completing the Intersect. At the very least, we need to ready the one that will remove yours. If we can get that one out of you, maybe that will buy us some time. Our priority right now is your safety."

"What about Shaw? Now he knows there's something going on at the Buy More. We have to assume he's told them by now."

Chuck sat up in the bed while holding Sarah in his arms. "I don't want him coming after you again. He had that knife to your throat last night, and I…it really…" he let the words trail off.

"We weren't expecting that," Sarah replied with renewed confidence. "But now we can be ready for him. The Buy More's security has been upgraded, and your father is close to finishing what we need to get the Intersect out of your head. We'll get this done."

Chuck looked into her eyes. "OK. But you BETTER stay safe, young lady," he said in a stern voice, pointing a finger in her face.

"Yes, DAD," she replied before the two broke up in laughter and continued to kiss.

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 6, 2016  
11:00 AM PDT**_

Jimmy dragged himself to the back entrance of the Buy More with a cup of coffee that could be used to refill an entire Starbucks. He spent the majority of the night configuring the security hardware brought in from the local NSA office. The servers in the back of the store would now require a body scan and both voice and retinal identification to be accessed, and Stephen reconfigured the network encryption with a 2MB rolling cypher that would take months to break through. Anyone without authorization would have to be cleared by someone inside the room. And whoever who attempted to enter unannounced would find themselves staring down the business end of a pair of computer-controlled electro-shock guns capable of lighting them up like a cheesy 70s game show.

Alex pulled out her smartphone and dialed Morgan's number. She spent the night at the Buy More as well but wasn't as exhausted as Jimmy. Given he was the expert in surveillance hardware and computer programming, he did most of the heavy lifting last night. But she was going to get some rest after they were done here and make sure Jimmy did likewise.

"Morgan?" she said when he answered. "We're in the employees' hallway. We need you and Mike to come back here."

"Sure thing," Morgan replied. "I'll get Big Mike."

A few moments later, Morgan and Big Mike came through the back doors leading to the employees' area. The four walked into the breakroom. Alex closed the door behind them.

"We just wanted to update the two of you on what's happening," Jimmy began.

"Dude, you look like hell," Morgan said. "You two weren't…"

"We were here all night," Alex replied with some irritation. "The store was attacked last night. It's better that you don't know the details, but we've upgraded the security both around the Intersect computers and around the store."

"You were attacked?" Big Mike asked with understandable concern. "Was anybody hurt?"

"Thankfully, no," Jimmy replied. "But the Intersect is starting to harm Chuck even more. That makes unfeasible to try and establish a new location for Mr. Bartowski to work. We have to get this out of Chuck and soon. And if the Ring is stepping up its attacks on us, I have to get the new one in me quickly."

"Whoah, this thing is going to kill Chuck?" Morgan said in an alarmed voice.

"We're not going to let it get that far. But you two have to be as vigilant as possible. We don't know if the Ring will attack us again or when. We're doubling the number of agents here during the day, and we'll only work on the Intersect when the store is closed. Hopefully Mr. Bartowski can finish his work. Chuck and Sarah are watching Ellie, Devon, and him at the hotel. You have to do whatever it takes to make sure things run normally around here."

"In the meantime, we want you to carry these," Alex said, handing Morgan and Big Mike a pair of small remotes. "That's an emergency callout. Press the button, and it'll transmit a distress call and your coordinates to the team and we'll come running."

"Just make sure you don't lose those and Jeff and Lester find them," Jimmy said tiredly. "Talk about the boys who would cry 'Wolf'."

"Gotcha," Big Mike replied.

"We'll keep you posted."

The four got up and exited the breakroom. Morgan and Big Mike returned to the floor while Alex and Jimmy exited the store.

"Back to the hotel for you," Alex said, pulling at Jimmy's arm and leading him to the passenger's side door. "You need some rest."

"Christ," Jimmy droned. "You're worse than Sarah."

Alex took his car keys and went to the driver's side to get in. "If it's that important to protect Chuck, why isn't at least as important to insure the health of the person who will get the new Intersect?"

"There's a difference," Jimmy ground out as he slid into the car. "People like Chuck." That was met by an angry glare from Alex. "Am I about to get smacked upside the head?"

"If you're lucky, that's all I do," she growled at him.

He shook his head. "To the hotel," he answered tiredly, pointing out of the parking lot.

Alex put the car in gear and took off. Two people watched them leave, surprised that they were there. They continued to walk around, wondering why the Buy More had so many more cameras than they remembered.

"What's going on?" one of them asked the other.

"Hope they didn't go in our lockers. My stash is in there."

"Why would an actor care about your stash? That was Jimmy Slade. You met him, remember? Why was he here today? And who's the hot blonde?"

"No clue. Maybe they're doing some location scouting."

"Why would Jimmy Slade and Tricia Helfer be scouting the Buy More?"

The man turned to him. "That was Tricia Helfer?"

"I thought it was her."

"Wow, she looks even more badass in person."

The first man stared out at the departing vehicle. "Something is going on. We have to find out what it is."

"No prob. Just gotta take my green pills first. Or do I take the yellow ones now?"

Lester shook his head at Jeff's lack of reality as the two returned to the Buy More to figure out what was happening.

 ** _Buy More – Burbank, CA  
_** _ **June 6, 2016  
9:00 PM PDT**_

Sarah stood and stretched. Chuck, Ellie, and Stephen were huddled over the Intersect computers. Stephen was close to finishing configuring the program to remove the Intersect from Chuck. Ellie continued to adapt Stephen's code to the Intersect they would download into Jimmy. Chuck finished installing the last of the security measures needed for the room: a panic button that would download all of the data on a hard drive and destroy the computers should they come under attack.

Sarah checked the time. "Devon should be back in a few minutes with some dinner. Are all of you at a point where you can take a break?"

Stephen exhaled. "There's way too much to finish and I'm so close…"

Ellie cleared her throat, and Stephen turned to see the evil glare on her face. He turned behind him to see the same look on Sarah.

Stephen leaned over towards Chuck. "It's like your mother split in two," he said quietly.

"Not getting any sympathy from me," Chuck said with zero remorse.

"I'll check with Cole's people outside and make sure things are OK," Sarah said. "Then I'll bring Devon in."

"OK," Chuck replied. "And be careful."

"I will." She gave him a kiss and exited Big Mike's office. She checked the monitor to see the agents closest to the door were still there. She then opened the door.

"Everything OK out here?" she asked the closest agent.

"It's quiet," the man replied. "We're rotating. the two-person teams: two guarding the door and two walking the perimeter at all times. So far we haven't…"

The agent stopped and fell to the ground. Sarah pulled out her gun and looked in shock at the dead agent. The agent twenty feet down hit their emergency callout before the whoosh of another silenced bullet sent her to her grave. Sarah ducked down and moved slowly, attempting to ascertain the source of the gunfire. A shot went off a foot in front of her and she dove back. She tried to run in the opposite direction, only to have another shot hit the building in front of her again. She turned back in terror. Someone grabbed her from behind and wrapped their hand around her throat.

"Isn't technology wonderful?" Daniel Shaw hissed into her ear. He then threw the wireless control he was using to control the rifle on the ground at Sarah's feet. "Courtesy of the Ring. After all, how can you shoot at a sniper that isn't even there?"

Sarah snapped her head back, nailing Shaw in the nose. It was enough to loosen his grip on her throat. She twisted his wrist to push him away, planting a hard boot into his midsection to send him back.

Shaw stared at her with a deranged smile. Right then, his Intersect activated. His eyes rolled up into his head and snapped back. Sarah looked at him in horror, having seen Chuck do exactly this when he had a flash.

"Time for some fun," Shaw hissed.

He spun and landed a kick at Sarah's face, knocking her down. She rolled quickly along the ground to get away from him as he leaped forward and delivered a kick to her midsection. She coughed profusely, pulling herself to her knees. As she tried to get to her feet, Shaw sent a hard roundhouse at her, making her stagger back. She tried to send a spinning kick at him but he caught her leg and threw her. She fell to the concrete, barely able to move.

"Shaw!"

Shaw turned to see Chuck and Stephen there.

"This is not about you, Bartowski," Shaw seethed as he stared Chuck down. "Your girlfriend has to pay for what she did."

"She didn't murder your wife," Chuck said, slowly walking towards him as Stephen ran to check on Sarah. "Sarah's not capable of murder. The Ring lied to you."

"Oh, but she is," Shaw replied in an increasingly maniacal tone. "She's a government agent, just like I used to be. We're all capable of murder. It's part of our job. It's a part of us."

"It doesn't have to be. You know someone like her isn't capable of murdering in cold blood."

"I SAW HER DO IT!" Shaw roared. "I saw the footage! She killed her!"

Shaw started to move towards the barely-conscious Sarah. "She has to pay for what she did."

"Do not lay a finger on her," Chuck warned him, continuing to walk towards Shaw.

Shaw turned and faced Chuck. "The Ring told me all about your Intersect. How it's killing you slowly. It takes a special mind to control it."

"I'm in control," Chuck replied evenly.

Shaw stood in silence for a moment. An evil grin drew across his face. "How about now?"

Shaw whirled around, pulled out his gun, and shot Stephen, who fell back to the ground.

"NOOOOO!" Chuck screamed. Shaw turned and went towards Chuck. Chuck's Intersect kicked in and he fell to the ground from the extreme pain. He covered his head, unable to handle to handle it.

"Looks like I can handle it better than you. Revenge is the ultimate motivation," Shaw teased as he leveled the gun at Chuck.

Someone flew at Shaw and knocked him to the ground, making him drop his gun in the process. He quickly got up as Jimmy jumped up and faced him, blocking him from getting back to Chuck. Ellie, Casey, and Ilsa charged out of the Buy More. Casey swept up Chuck and carried him over to where Sarah and Stephen were. Ilsa and he guarded them while Ellie checked on the three.

"Well, well," Shaw cackled at Jimmy. "The other Intersect. It's a double-feature."

Shaw attacked Jimmy, who rolled on the ground to avoid him. Shaw doubled-back quickly and sent a kick at Jimmy's head to knock him down. He went for the prone Jimmy, who launched upward, nailing Shaw in the chin with his skull and knocking him back. Shaw was unfazed as he threw a hook that sent Jimmy reeling back. He followed it up with a second. On his third attempt, Jimmy ducked to the side and hooked the incoming arm of Shaw. He sent four consecutive punches at Shaw's kidneys but Shaw was undeterred, lurching forward to flip Jimmy to the ground.

He went towards Jimmy when he had to hit the ground. Carina and Alex opened fire at him. Shaw took an explosive device and threw it at the group. It landed by Jimmy's head, who barely had enough strength to grab it and whip it towards the parking lot. Casey, Ilsa, Carina, and Alex dove for Chuck, Sarah, and Stephen, covering them as the explosive went off. The four went chase after Shaw, but he was long gone.

Casey immediately pulled out his phone. "This is Casey, authorization 27455-Beta-Echo-Charlie. Need a medi-vac helicopter at 9000 Burbank Boulevard, stat. Three victims, one with a gunshot wound. Get your asses here now!"

Cole ran out of the Buy More with the backup drive as Devon pulled up. Everybody gave Ellie and him room to take care of Chuck, Sarah, and Stephen.


	38. Don't Get Mad, Get Even

_Hello again. Sadly, I was right about starting this new job. It takes up a lot of my time, so I didn't get this update out as fast as I wanted. It feels so weird having what is effectively a full-time job for the first time in two years (even though it doesn't have the pay of a full-time job), but I'm doing my best to keep at it. It's actually pretty amazing that I'm teaching freshman students stuff that I didn't learn until my second or third year of college, and I wasn't an idiot (academically speaking, anyway) when I went through school. Although, as I'm sure you can tell by my writing, my grammar and punctuation skills could use a bit of work. (OK, a lot of it.)_

 _I did leave you on quite a cliffhanger, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't do it again in this chapter. But you know me and trying to get you back for the next chapter. But two words to a very nice reader of my work regarding the first part of this chapter: you're welcome. ;-)_

 _I will endeavor to get the next chapter out within two weeks (actually, some of it is already written), but you know how things go. And as always, NBC, Fake Empire, the usual stuff. And I do apologize for not sending out thank-you's to those who reviewed the last chapter. Like I said, it's been crazy around here. But I promise I will this time around._

 _Enjoy, and again, please review!_

* * *

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ ** _June 6, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _9:30 PM PDT_**

"Where the hell is that medi-vac chopper?"

The normally unflappable Casey was starting to lose his hardened exterior watching Ellie and Devon desperately work on their father, trying to save him after being shot by Daniel Shaw. Seeing Chuck and Sarah barely moving themselves after being attacked made things a hundred times worse. Carina kept an eye on them as Alex and Ilsa had run to the front of the store to wait for the chopper while Jimmy and Cole tore into the Buy More to get the emergency stretcher out of the back office.

"Can you get to the bullet safely?" Ellie asked her husband.

"Maybe, but I'll have to keep the wound compressed so he doesn't bleed out," he replied. "I can't do that until the chopper is landing because I can only do that for so long before too much blood is cut off to the brain."

"We have the chopper spotted," Alex called out over her radio. "They'll land in ninety seconds. You need to get over here now."

Ellie and Devon turned back to the store to see Jimmy and Cole sprinting towards them with the stretcher. They laid it down next to Stephen.

"Ready, El?" Devon asked in as solemn of a tone as anyone ever heard out of him.

Ellie nodded, and Devon removed the bullet, immediately pressing his fingers against the wound. "Now!" he shouted.

Jimmy and Cole carefully lifted Stephen and placed him onto the stretcher. Ilsa strapped him in tightly as Casey and Carina pulled Chuck and Sarah up and led them to the front of the store. Jimmy and Cole lifted the stretcher and went as fast as they could while Ellie and Devon continued to work on Stephen.

The medi-vac chopper landed and the team got out, sliding open the side door and readying the chopper's gurney, along with the emergency kit and a supply of blood. They brought Stephen to the chopper and placed him on the gurney. Ellie leaped into the chopper and began to pull items out of the emergency kit as Devon continued his work. The medi-vac technician assisted with starting the blood transfusion as the rest of the team headed to the pair of SUVs near the entrance. The door to the chopper slid shut and took off for the hospital. The SUVs headed in that direction as well.

 _ **West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _1:30 AM PDT_**

The team sat quietly in the waiting room near the entrance to the E.R. awaiting word on Stephen. A doctor had attended to the wounds Sarah received from Shaw. No one was in any sort of a mood to even talk.

They saw Chuck walk slowly down the hallway. Sarah ran to him and hugged him tightly.

"Are you OK?" he asked softly.

"I am now, yes," she replied, her grip on him intensifying. "What about you?"

"It's still a bit foggy, but I feel better than I did four hours ago."

The two walked back to the group. "Did Ellie or Devon come out here?" Chuck asked.

Carina shook her head. "No word from either of them."

Chuck began to tremble at the prospect of his father not pulling through. "Chuck, he will be OK," Sarah said with renewed confidence, squeezing his hand. "Please believe that. He has the best hospital staff working on him right now."

She turned him to her and gently cradled his face in her hands. "And as all of us have learned, you never underestimate a Bartowski."

Chuck looked down at the ground momentarily before looking back up with a tiny smile on his face. Sarah gently caressed his cheek and pulled him to her. They held on to each other as they heard the sound of someone walking up behind them.

They turned to see Ellie there. Chuck looked at her in anticipation. Ellie exhaled in relief. "Dad will be OK."

A wave of relief fell over Chuck, who couldn't stop a few tears from forming. Ellie and he hugged tightly, who was also overcome with emotion. Devon came up to both of them and joined in on the hug, as did Sarah. Everybody else gathered around at the good news.

 _ **Georgetown – Washington, D.C.  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _7:00 AM EDT_**

Beckman checked herself in the mirror to see every piece of her uniform was in place and not a single thing was askew. Old habits were hard to break, especially ones developed through thirty years of Air Force work. She went to the door to walk outside of her house and to her car for the interminable drive to the DNI.

A team of federal agents awaited her.

"General Beckman, we have been ordered to take you into custody," the leader of the team said, showing his ID.

Beckman stood there in momentary shock. "On what grounds?" she demanded.

"You are under investigation on direct orders from the President. You are to be held pending charges of murder, extortion, and treason."

Two of the agents turned Beckman towards the wall of her house and placed her hands on it, frisking her and handcuffing her as the fourth agent read Beckman her Miranda rights. The team led Beckman to a government SUV and placed her in the back. The SUV drove away from the house.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 7, 2016  
8:00 AM PDT**_

Sarah went to the door when she heard the knock. She opened it to find a very tired Chuck, Ellie and Devon waiting for her.

"How's your father?" Sarah asked as she hugged all three of them.

"It'll take time for him to recover, but he will," Ellie replied.

"Thank God. I…I'm so sorry, Ellie. We never wanted this…"

"I know, Sarah. I know." Ellie exhaled and gripped Sarah more tightly. "I'm just glad you and Chuck are OK. What happened last night…"

"God, I feel so…"

"Stop." Ellie grabbed Sarah's shoulders. "You did nothing wrong. Chuck was right. This was some angry, obsessed person who blames you for something you didn't do."

"Shaw is definitely not sane," Devon agreed. "Hatred blinds a person. They don't think clearly and they zone in on what they think is the easiest method to get rid of it, whether it's right or not."

Sarah looked down at the ground and nodded quietly. "You're right. You're right. I'm…just…"

"We all are," Chuck replied gently, taking her into his arms. "But we're also all together. And that's how we'll get through this: together."

Sarah looked into Chuck's eyes and smiled, that look of calm in those puppy-dog brown eyes unwavering in spite of everything that had happened to them since last night. She gave him a gentle kiss.

"Everybody else should be across the hall by now," she said. "I could use some coffee."

The three nodded and turned to the door. Sarah opened it. Carina was standing there, about to knock.

"We have a problem," she said abruptly. She then turned and returned to the conference room. Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, and Devon followed behind her.

"What's going on?" Sarah asked as she entered.

"Just got a call from my assistant at the DNI," Casey replied. "Beckman's been arrested."

"WHAT?!" Chuck exclaimed.

"She's been accused of murder, extortion, and treason, and he thinks it has to do with us. But that's all he knew. I told him not to contact me anymore or tell anyone he had."

"How could this have to do with all of us?" Ilsa asked.

Casey stared ahead for a moment. "The warehouse. This has to be about the warehouse."

"The same warehouse where we were almost killed?" Cole asked.

Casey nodded. "Beckman's mole must have taken the data we implanted and spun the story in the Ring's favor."

Alex growled loud enough to send a grizzly bear running away. "Who wants to bet they're accusing her of trying to take out our own warehouse and making it sound like she ordered us to kill the agents who attacked us?"

"Which means sooner or later, they'll come after all of us," Carina replied. "Probably sooner."

"You're sure there's no Intersect data at the Buy More?" Casey asked Cole.

"We have it all," Cole replied as he gestured to the emergency drive he took out of the store. "The cupboards are bare."

"But it won't do us any good if we can't get to the computers," Chuck replied. "They know we were doing something there. They're probably confiscating the equipment as we speak. And now we don't have my father to build it."

"Not to mention dealing with this psycho who's after all of us," Carina said. "He said he saw you kill his wife?" she asked Sarah, who nodded with a look of defeat.

"The Ring had to have set that up," Chuck replied. "That's the only explanation."

"So now we have the Ring, Shaw, and the entire government coming after us?" Devon asked. Everyone could feel the air go out of the room. Devon sank down into his chair. "How do we get out of this? Everything's changed."

The entire group went silent for what felt like an eternity.

"Nothing's changed."

Everyone turned in Jimmy's direction. "Nothing's changed," he repeated, looking up for the first time. "We still have the same three goals we did twelve hours ago. Get the Intersect out of Chuck, get the new one into me, and take out the Ring."

They stared at him in surprise. He rose to his feet. "They think they have us. They knocked us down. Hard. But you know what? That's what we all have in common. All of us have been knocked down hard in our lives. Chuck, Ellie, you basically had to grow up on your own. Sarah, think of how much hell you went through in school. What Case had to endure when his father died, when Alex lost her fiancé, what happened to Carina in East Grande, what Cole and Ilsa have just gone through, what I went through. But we came back from all of those things. One way or another, we came back tougher and stronger. And somehow, we found each other.

"You were right, Sarah. We did change and we helped to change each other. We made ourselves into a family. And they want to take that away from us. But I, for one, am not going to let that happen. Beckman tried it before, and it almost killed me. If these bastards think they can do that to us, if they think they can tear us apart, they're in for one major-league shock."

"But how do we build the Intersect?" Ellie asked softly. "We need our father for that."

Jimmy turned to her. "You've been with him. You've studied what he's done and you're our expert on neurophysiology. If Chuck does the programming, can the two of you complete your father's work?"

Ellie stared ahead. She then looked at the hard drive of data containing her father's research sitting on the table. She breathed in and out slowly. "I can do it," she said with considerable resolve.

Jimmy nodded and smiled while Devon held her hand. "But what about the computers we would need?" she asked. "How do we get our hands on those?"

Jimmy turned to Casey. "Case, feel like breaking into the NSA and doing a little shopping?"

Casey gave a grunt of approval with a side dish of excitement. "I'll…take that as a yes? Carina, you, Cole, and Ilsa join him. Next, we have to get to Beckman. I get the feeling whoever the mole is, eventually they'll make their presence known to her. If for nothing else than to take a little victory lap. Alex, you're the closest with Beckman and you know where she's being held better than the rest of us. What do you think?"

She gave it some thought, and a little gleam came to her ocean blue eyes. "I have a few ideas on the subject if you and Case can help me set that up."

"Finally, we need to take the fight to the Ring. They got into our systems; it's time for us to take down theirs. And maybe get the proof we need they've conned Shaw into doing their bidding."

"That is a stupid, crazy thing to do," Sarah sharply replied.

"I know. That's why I'm doing it."

"Like hell! You're not going in there by yourself!"

"You have to protect Chuck and his family," he replied with equal force. "You have the most important job of all. Nothing we do means anything if they can't get those Intersects made. If anything happens to them, that's something none of us can ever come back from."

Jimmy's posture softened and he managed a little smile. "Remember what you told me when I had to seduce Sasha Banacheck? You said this is what we do. We help each other. And we make it work no matter what."

He turned back to everyone. "It's time to pull out all the stops. We go after these sons of bitches hard and with everything we've got. They pull out a knife? We pull out a gun. They put one of ours in the hospital? We put one of theirs in the morgue! We can do this. We WILL do this. Because that's what we do. It's who we are."

Everybody looked at each other. The doleful atmosphere that had permeated the team since last night began to be replaced with a renewed confidence.

Casey stood with a look that would make a pit bull cower. "Let's get to work, people," he ordered.

Everybody got up and started to organize their plans. Alex walked over to Jimmy.

"Um, I liked the talk, but why were you stealing lines from _The Untouchables_?" she quietly asked him.

"What do you want? I grew up in Chicago," Jimmy retorted with a grin. "When you give the big speech, quote _Rocky_ 'til you're blue in the face for all I care."

Alex shook her head in annoyance as Jimmy walked over to Sarah.

"I'm sorry about stepping on your toes there," he said softly. "I know you're the boss. You lead us. I'm…I just…"

Sarah smiled. "I've been waiting three years for you to do something like that."

Jimmy looked down at the ground and gave her a shy smile. "I owe you this. Hell, I owe you a lot more than this. I'd be dead or pretty damn close to it had it not been for you. You and Chuck deserve a first-class flight to the land of happily ever after, and I know we'll deliver."

Sarah put her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "You've been a wonderful friend ever since we met," she said. "You've never owed me anything more than that."

"You deserve to be happy, kiddo. Chuck is the guy for you. We all knew that from day one. And he's lucky to have you."

The smile on Sarah's face got even brighter. "We all deserve to be happy," she replied. "Including you."

"I'll work on it."

"You better."

 _ **Buy More – Burbank, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _11:00 AM PDT_**

Morgan walked around the store. He noticed neither Cole nor Ilsa were there, although a couple of the people Cole brought in to keep an eye on the place were. Something didn't feel right today. He noticed a fresh section of asphalt in the small parking lot behind the store meant for the employees. He hoped it was just a water main break the city had to fix last night, but given all that had transpired recently, that was a seriously-optimistic guess.

And Jeff and Lester acting even more oddly than normal was certainly no help.

He rolled his eyes at their blatant shiftiness. It never helped when those two believed they were cleverer than they really were, and this sure as hell wasn't the time for it. He immediately went over to them.

"What are you two doing?" Morgan demanded in a somewhat-less-than-friendly tone.

"Hey, keep it down!" Lester hissed. "They're here."

"What are you talking about?"

"Someone's here to watch us. They're after us."

"I knew the guys in the white lab coats would come back sooner or later," Jeff said, who was jittery enough to make coffee nervous. "You can't let them take us."

"You two are being ridiculous…even more than usual," Morgan tiredly droned.

"Oh yeah?" Lester was just getting started. "What about the back parking lot? Where did that hole in the asphalt come from?"

"We…had a delivery truck here late last night. They dropped the loading ramp down too hard, so we had to call and get that hole filled. You got to park back there today, didn't you?"

"OK, what about this?" Lester walked across the store to where the pictures were for Employee of the Month. "Who straightened Chip's picture?"

"What?"

"His picture used to be crooked and now it's straight!"

"Always looked straight to me," Jeff answered in a haze.

"Anybody could have done that. We have a lot of new workers here," Morgan answered, his agitation increasing.

"What about that CD?" Lester asked, pointing to one of the CD racks.

"I don't understand," Morgan said in confusion.

"That Nickelback CD was always in the wrong spot, but now it's in the correct alphabetical order."

"Maybe someone picked up the CD and was thinking of buying it."

"Why would ANYBODY buy a Nickelback CD?"

"OK, what do you think about this?" Jeff asked, holding up a long plastic wrapper.

"Um…when you buy condoms, you think really highly of yourself?" Morgan guessed.

"It's the plastic wrapping for a syringe. I found it in the parking lot."

"And somehow, I am not surprised you knew what that was for." Morgan was ready to tear his hair out. "NOTHING is going on! The only thing going on is the two of you acting like idiots. Just…just get back to the desk, OK?"

Lester gave Morgan an angry stare, while Jeff's was more from the highly-frightening department. They turned and walked away.

"Maybe we should have told him about Jimmy Slade and Tricia Helfer. Why they were here," Jeff said quietly to Lester.

Morgan had his back turned to the morons, so they didn't see his eyes widen in shock. They saw Jimmy and Alex here yesterday. That would take a lot more to explain if they got curious.

His smartphone began to rang. He quickly walked away from everyone when he saw Jimmy's number on the caller ID.

"Dude, what's going on?" Morgan whispered desperately. "Did something happen again last night?"

"I'm afraid so, yeah," Jimmy replied. "We'll be by the store in an hour. There's a lot to talk about."

"Wait, Jimmy. No, bad idea."

"What's wrong?"

"Jeff and Lester are getting paranoid. Even more than normal. They think there's something big going on. They saw you and Alex here yesterday. You know how those two can get."

Jimmy sighed. "OK, then. You and Big Mike come by the hotel. Have Big Mike tell everybody he's off to lunch. That'll buy us a lot of time."

"OK, I'll do that. See you soon."

"Bye."

 _ **Toluca Terrace Apartments – Burbank, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _12:00 PM PDT_**

Casey quickly entered his apartment, followed by Chuck, Carina, Cole, and Ilsa. Given his codes still disabled the security measures that were installed, it was safe to say the NSA hadn't yet received word that the team was to be arrested. Unfortunately, their timetable was very tight. Beckman had been under arrest for several hours, and it wouldn't take long for the order to go out to bring the team in. He hoped Chuck could access the NSA's network on the apartment's computer and implant the ID cards they made for Cole and Ilsa, who wouldn't be instantly recognized by anybody.

"Are you sure you can handle this, Chuck?" Carina asked. "Those flashes last night put you through hell."

"I should be OK," Chuck replied. "This won't require the Intersect. My dad's encryption program should be able to give me access to the database in the NSA's L.A. branch. It'll just take a few minutes to drop Cole's and Ilsa's IDs and the work orders into the all the correct locations."

Chuck began to program as Casey pulled out Jimmy's tablet computer and brought up a schematic of the NSA office. "Once you're past the main gate, head straight down to IT," he told Ilsa and Cole. "Miller and I will work our way to the dock area and knock out the guards there. We can get into the bay, but only your IDs can get the big surveillance van from the IT section to the main shipping dock. Obviously if they spot us, we're screwed."

"The surveillance van has what Chuck and Ellie will need to keep making the Intersect?" Cole asked.

"This one does." Casey showed them a picture of the van. "This is what a surveillance van wants to be when it grows up. You can be two hundred feet underground surrounded by concrete and still hear someone ten miles away as if they were right next to you. Every intelligence agency in the world would give up their nuclear codes to get one of these. We used it when Slade had to go undercover to snag intel from an ex-Russian agent."

"Just don't ask him about the pool," Carina added with a smile.

"What pool?" Cole asked with piqued interest.

"He fell fourteen floors from a hotel balcony into a pool."

Cole shook his head. "Has he EVER had an easy day in his life?"

"That WAS an easy day," Casey quipped.

"OK, here we go," Chuck said. He took the IDs they made for Cole and Ilsa and entered their information into the NSA's network, careful to cover his tracks and make sure it appeared Cole and Ilsa had worked for the NSA for a few years. "You're all set. Cole and Ilsa walk in at 2PM, and your IDs should get you inside.

"Work fast," Casey warned them. "Miller and I will take out the dock guards and get the doors open at exactly 2:10. Once we have, there's only three minutes before the entire building comes down on us."

"Not a problem, John," Ilsa replied.

"Head back to the hotel," Casey told Chuck. "Once we have the van, we have to find a place to stash it. Have your sister and Sarah ready."

"You got it," Chuck replied. He exited Casey's apartment and headed back to the hotel. Casey turned to everyone else.

"Everybody know what they need to do?" Carina, Cole, and Ilsa nodded. Casey went to his closet and pulled out his two best tranq guns. He placed magazines in each and clapped the guns together to shove them in.

"Let's do this."

The four left the apartment.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 7, 2016  
12:10 PM PDT**_

Morgan knocked on the door to the conference room and Jimmy answered.

"Glad you two made it," he said to Morgan and Big Mike.

"Are you off somewhere?" Morgan asked, noticing Jimmy was loaded down with equipment.

"Just going to do a little bit of what Lance McCall does."

"You mean, do something stupid and crazy and crack a lot of one-liners while doing it?" Big Mike asked.

Jimmy rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I walked right into that one." He shook his head and exited. Morgan and Big Mike went inside.

"Have a seat, guys," Alex told them, gesturing to the conference table set up in the room. "Jimmy said you were having problems this morning?"

Morgan nodded. "Yeah. Jeff and Lester are starting to notice things at the store. Whenever you guys clean up the place, you can't do it so perfectly. The place looks…well, it looks like a real store. I mean, if they can figure it out…"

Alex nodded. "We'll work on that. Right now, we have even bigger problems. Jimmy told you that Chuck and Sarah were attacked again last night, correct?" Morgan nodded. "The Intersect really did a number on Chuck. And now, there's a psychotic ex-agent going after Sarah because he thinks she killed his wife."

"Someone's stalking Sarah?" Big Mike asked, the alarm rising in his voice.

"He even shot Chuck's father. Mr. Bartowski will recover, but we're really in a bind. Even more so now since our boss, General Beckman, has been jailed on trumped-up charges. That's the part where we need your help."

"Yeah, yeah Alex, sure," Morgan replied, although his confidence wasn't exactly going through the roof. "What can we do?"

"The three of us are going to fly to D.C. You two will pose as lawyers for Beckman. Whatever is happening, the Ring has someone high-up in Beckman's department, but we don't know who. However, Beckman does have the right to receive visits from family members or attorneys. The mole has to play it straight up and grant Beckman her rights or risk exposing themselves."

"We don't know much about the law," Big Mike said.

"You won't need to." Alex held up what looked like a small transmitter with a clip. "You'll attach this to the phone in the visitor's room. It'll overlay a conversation that will be picked up by the detention facility so they can't hear what you're really telling Beckman. Of course, take it with you when you leave. We don't want to give ourselves away."

"And what will we really tell her?"

"You'll update her on what is going on here and what our plan is. Just to be safe, we'll keep the details to a minimum. She just needs to know what our status is. But most importantly, she'll need to know about this."

Alex held up a small transmitter that looked like a crown for a tooth, a small wireless drive, and a pair of contact lenses. "This is some really cool spy stuff you guys have," Morgan said in amazement.

"Casey and Jimmy made these, and the team has used them before on actual missions."

"How do we get these to her?"

"You don't. I do."

"You will?" Big Mike asked. "You can just walk in there?"

"I worked in that building for six years. I know all the ins and outs. I can get inside and crawl through the ventilation systems and make it to Beckman's cell. Then I drop these in. We figure whoever the mole is, they'll have to show up at Beckman's cell eventually. And then we'll know who is behind all of this."

"I would think they watch her cell 24/7."

"They do. There are cameras watching her every move. But there's a two-second blind spot when the recording drives switch over. The cameras temporarily shut off, meaning you could sneak something in there if you time it right. Beckman puts on the contacts and the microphone, and anyone who visits Beckman would be recorded on the drive. Hopefully it'll work."

"This…this sounds like a lot," Morgan said.

Alex nodded. "You're right. "But I think you'd agree it's worth it if Chuck and Sarah can get out of the spy world together. There's nothing these people wouldn't do for each other. I imagine you feel the same way about your best friend."

Morgan keenly nodded. "Oh, no question."

"I only met them two months ago, and I'm the last person who would act like that. But they got to me, too. Especially Jimmy."

"I'll bet," Morgan replied with a grin.

Alex stared out into space for a moment, a tiny smile coming to her face. She nodded and then got up from the table. "Let's get packed."

 _ **National Security Agency – Western Branch – Los Angeles, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _1:55 PM PDT_**

A nondescript sedan parked in the main lot at the NSA office, and two figures exited, both of whom checked their IDs and readied the equipment they would need to handle testing the facility's anti-hacking protocols. At least to the NSA, that's how it looked. However, Cole and Ilsa had other plans. They walked purposefully to the main desk at the entrance, taking note of the two officers with automatic weapons. They handed their IDs and work orders to a third security guard.

"OK…" the guard said, looking over the information on her computer. "Jennifer Mack, your ID checks out. John McKittrick…one second, the system's a bit slow…there we are. And we have the work orders confirmed. Thanks for your patience. Just present your equipment at the scanning station to your right and they'll process you through.

Cole and Ilsa took their IDs and walked over to the scanners, presenting their equipment for inspection. Luckily, Chuck, Casey, and Jimmy were able to gut a pair of laptops sitting at the Nerd Herd being ignored by Jeff and Lester in order to hide a set of tranq darts and gun. But this was the crucial part. They had no time to test if the laptops would pass a scan.

"Good to go," the guard said, handing them back their equipment.

Cole and Ilsa tried not to let their relief show as they went through security. They took the elevator down to the lower levels.

"I've been an agent for fifteen years," Cole said quietly. "I thought I had seen everything until I ran into these people."

Ilsa nodded. "I feel the same way. I can't say my time with the DGSE had been a positive experience."

"But then this group…"

Ilsa smiled. "It's funny how John tries to keep up that hard-ass personality when he's really a kitten underneath. I thought there was so much to him when we were together in Chechnya. But now…I guess hanging around with this group will do that to you. It's so obvious why they're such a great team."

"Agreed. If I had to deal with Amir's death on my own, I would have had a tough time with it. But everyone was so supportive when I needed it." He quietly chuckled. "I guess they got their hooks into us, too."

"That they did."

The elevator opened up to the basement level, and Cole and Ilsa walked down the hallway to the main server room.

"Good afternoon," Cole said to the technicians sitting around. "I'm John McKittrick and this is Jennifer Mack. We're here to verify and test the latest anti-hacking protocols on your servers."

"Everything's working just fine," one of the technicians spat with a considerable amount of condescension and contempt. "We don't need some D.C. flunkies messing around with our stuff."

"We've been all over the country this week, and we have four more of these places to test after this," Ilsa replied in kind. "So if you don't mind, park your attitude problem elsewhere and let us get to work."

The technician got up in a huff as Cole moved over to the keyboard. Ilsa moved to a table away from everyone else and opened up her laptop, carefully assembling her tranq gun out of sight of everyone. Cole did the same with the tranq gun in his laptop. Both of them checked the time and eyed the garage door at the opposite end where the surveillance van was. Casey and Carina would be opening the outer doors in three minutes.

~/^\~

"Are you in?"

Carina looked around impatiently as Casey attached the wireless transmitter to the junction box near the rear dock for the building. They needed to loop the video feed so they could get to the dock undetected. From there, they would tranq the four guards watching the docks. Once they used their access card to open the doors, the three-minute clock would count down. Unfortunately, they couldn't communicate with Cole or Ilsa; the building had gear able to detect any unauthorized signals.

"Just need sixty seconds," Casey replied. He quickly checked his watch. It was 2:07. The timing was critical. They had two minutes until Cole and Ilsa tranqued the technicians and grabbed the van. They would open the outer doors exactly one minute later.

"OK, cameras are set," Casey said after a moment. He closed the junction box and got out his tranq guns. "You up for it?" he asked Carina.

"Always," she said with a knowing glance. "And for this, too."

Casey exhaled. "Why did I volunteer for that mission in Prague?" he muttered in frustration.

Casey set his watch for a two-minute countdown. "Three…two…one…mark."

The two ran around the corner and headed for the dock. Before the guards could turn around, they fired away, sending all four of them to the ground.

"Get their weapons," Casey told Carina as he went to the doors. He readied the keycard and checked his watch. Thirty seconds until the doors had to be opened.

Casey then heard the click of a gun behind him.

~/^\~

The technician continued to glare at Cole. "You're testing the high-level protocols?" he asked. "The Level 8s?"

"That's right," Cole replied.

The technician straightened up. "Ours go all the way up to eleven."

Cole froze, and the other two technicians sat up in their chairs. Ilsa whipped out her tranq gun and shot each of them. The first technician tried to reach for the intruder alert button.

"Don't bother," Cole said, aiming his tranq gun at the man.

"Who the hell are you?" the technician demanded.

Cole fired, and the technician fell to the ground. "Not a wanker like you," he replied.

Ilsa went quickly to the storage bay and used her ID to open the door. Cole grabbed their gear and ran over, throwing everything into the back of the surveillance van. They got in the front and started to drive to the outer dock.

~/^\~

"Hello, Colonel Casey."

Casey gritted his teeth in anger and turned slowly to the man pointing the gun at his head, raising his hands in the process. "Given you know my rank, I'm guessing you're…"

"…with the Ring, yes," the man answered. He gestured with his gun for Casey to move over. "My buddy, Miles, made the mistake of letting you live, the sentimental idiot. Luckily, I don't have that problem."

He aimed the gun between Casey's eyes. "This is for Miles," he snarled.

Casey dropped to the ground. The Ring agent paused in confusion and then quickly turned around.

Carina opened fire with the automatic weapons she confiscated from the guards, killing him.

"And that's for Chuck's dad," Carina spat at the dead agent as she pulled Casey to his feet.

"Good dialogue," Casey said. "We should use that on the show next season."

"Yeah, because no one else ever thought to say that," Carina replied with ample sarcasm.

They got the door open just as Cole and Ilsa pulled the surveillance van up. They got inside and drove off.

 _ **Tangerine Hotel – Burbank, CA  
**_ _ **June 7, 2016  
3:00 PM PDT**_

"OK, Case. We'll see you there. Nice work."

Sarah hung up her phone. She had to smile: this WAS what they did. Breaking into the NSA to steal their best surveillance equipment was a high-risk play, but Casey, Carina, Ilsa, and Cole pulled it off. They even managed to eliminate a Ring agent in the process.

"How did they do?" Devon asked her, having entered the hotel room after dropping off Alex, Morgan, and Big Mike at the airport for their flight to Washington, D.C.

"They have the van. They're hiding out in an underground parking garage near Pershing Square. Once it's dark, they'll drive out to El Toro. We'll meet them there."

"And Jimmy?"

"He checked in from Bel Air a few minutes ago. He was checking those network connections he found at Victor Basta's house. He's then going to scout some of the locations we think the Ring had." She exhaled slowly. "I still don't think that was a smart idea."

"Yeah, but were we really going to stop him from doing it?" Chuck asked with a grin. "Especially after what he said this morning?"

"That's true," Sarah replied with a sigh. She turned to Ellie. "Are you sure you're up for this? Can you finish the two Intersects?"

Ellie nodded. "I want nothing more than for you and Chuck to be away from all of this. I want you two to be happy together. We'll get this done."

"That we will," Chuck replied, pulling Ellie close to him.

The two siblings hugged.

 _ **City of Industry, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _11:00 PM PDT_**

Jimmy sprinted across the lawn behind the building just out of range of the exterior cameras. He reached the proper location and waited until the two cameras in front of him made it to the correct point in their sweeps. He then jumped forward and somersaulted towards the building while the cameras were pointed away. He pressed himself against the wall and slid along it, making his around the corner. A guard turned and saw him, but Jimmy delivered a spinning back kick at the man to take him down before he could warn anybody.

He stepped back from the building and studied it carefully. He pulled two large objects out of his backpack and placed them on the ground. He then loaded his piton gun and attached it to his harness. He fired at the top of the building, and the piton embedded itself into the concrete. He activated his winch and ascended to the roof, quickly pulling himself over the ledge.

He found the network interface for the building. He broke open the junction box and attached a wireless transmitter connected to the laptop in his backpack. He activated it.

"Stop," a voice behind him said.

Jimmy stood and raised his hands. The person behind him walked towards him slowly. Keeping his gun aimed at Jimmy, the man took his piton gun and pulled his backpack and harness off him.

"You won't be escaping that way now," the man said as he ripped the wireless transmitter out of the junction box. "Turn around."

Jimmy turned to face the man.

"The Ring wants the four of you dead," Daniel Shaw said with a smile. "You're as good of a place to start as any."

Jimmy exhaled. "Aaah, hell," he muttered.


	39. Spy Craft 101

_As Ricky Ricardo would say, I've got some 'splainin to do._

 _I tried my best to keep up with my writing as I started that high school teaching job I had a few months ago, but the time consumption was beyond crazy. I didn't have time to do much of anything. I didn't even go out and socialize much or watch TV. When that ended, I had to work close to 70 hours a week to make ends meet. To say nothing about having a massive case of writer's block. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the story going. And it may still look like that when you read this._

 _Right now, things are beginning to settle down a bit. I still don't have a full-time job, but I am making enough in all these side jobs to pay the bills. I've been working to get this story going again. I also tried to involve a few characters more that haven't really been involved. Some in this chapter, and I gave you a little tease for the next chapter._

 _I am very sorry for leaving you hanging all of these months, and I appreciate your infinite patience. I don't want to guarantee when the next chapter will come out (look how well that worked the last time), but I will try to work on this story more, particularly since we're close to the end._

 _Thank you for hanging in there, and please leave a few reviews. Hope you have a great Fourth of July if you don't hear from me sooner!_

* * *

 _ **Marine Corps Air Station El Toro – Irvine, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _10:55 PM PDT_**

Chuck, Sarah, Ellie, and Devon drove along a back stretch behind the land where the Marine base used to reside, making their way to a ramp that would take them underneath the old runways. They had enough supplies to stay there for six days if it was needed. It was deep enough underground so the heat from the surveillance van's computers couldn't be detected by thermal imaging satellites. And the area would have no activity until the Fourth of July fireworks.

The car went down the ramp, and Sarah drove it two hundred meters along an underground roadway before pulling up next to the surveillance van, which had arrived twenty minutes earlier. Everyone waited until it was dark to come here, as the surveillance van would have certainly been picked up by any real-time NSA satellite during daylight.

"Is everybody OK?" Sarah asked as everyone got out of their vehicles.

"We're fine," Carina replied as Chuck, Casey, and Cole started organizing the supplies and getting the computers in the surveillance van set up. "Getting the van was a bit of an adventure, but we've been through worse."

"Be glad you didn't have to witness Chuck geeking out about this place," Ellie replied tiredly. "He couldn't stop talking about all of the movies and TV shows that have been filmed here. Thank God Morgan wasn't here. We'd never be able to shut those two up."

"Speaking of which, did he make it to D.C. with Alex and Big Mike?"

"They checked in a few hours ago," Sarah replied. "They're all set. Morgan and Mike will visit Beckman in the morning. According to Alex, the window to get the items to Beckman will be at 11:05 AM. They'll time it so she returns to her cell five minutes before that."

"And Jimmy?"

"Nothing since earlier. He's still checking out some of the places on that list."

"Let's hope he turns up something. We need some luck to start falling our way."

"The perimeter is secure," Ilsa said as she walked up to the three women. "We should be fine for the night."

"You three should get some rest," Ellie said. "I'll get to work once they're set up in there."

Sarah shook her head. "I have to keep an eye on you and Chuck."

"It's a Marine base. I think we're pretty safe here, Sarah. You've been at this non-stop since we returned to Los Angeles, and now you have an obsessed agent who has attacked you twice. You and Chuck need some time to yourselves."

She took Sarah's hands. "I've got everyone here to help. I'll be OK."

Sarah looked at her a moment before nodding and squeezing her hands. "Thanks, Ellie."

Cole poked his head out of the van. "Come take a look at this."

 _ **City of Industry, CA  
**_ ** _June 7, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _11:10 PM PDT_**

"Aaah, hell," Jimmy muttered as he stared down the business end of Daniel Shaw's Smith & Wesson.

"Pity this won't be as painful as falling down an elevator shaft," Shaw teased, cocking the gun.

Jimmy shook his head. "You know how ridiculous you look right now? You're willing to commit treason because of some bullshit the Ring told you?"

"I saw it! I saw the footage! I saw Walker kill my wife!"

"Yeah, because no one EVER doctored a video before," Jimmy retorted in complete disdain. "You've got first graders who can make it look like JFK was shot by Pee-Wee Herman. They're playing you, moron!"

He paused to collect himself. Antagonizing someone who had a gun pointed at you was something they taught you to avoid in spy school. "Do you honestly think your wife would want you to betray your country like this? Kill me, kill all of us, it won't bring her back. The only thing you'll accomplish is to shit all over her memory."

Shaw stepped towards Jimmy. "How dare you talk about…"

Jimmy spun and sent a kick at Shaw, knocking the gun out of his hands. Shaw launched at him, but Jimmy dove out of the way, rolling towards the gun. He tried to pick it up but Shaw was too fast, jumping on top of him. He grabbed Jimmy's wrist with one hand and landed an elbow to his face. He snatched the gun and tried to get up but Jimmy nailed him in the chest with both feet from his prone position and sent Shaw flying. Shaw fell to the ground and the gun fell away from him again.

Both of them quickly got up. Shaw's Intersect kicked in. He went after Jimmy, spinning in the air to land a kick to Jimmy's head, which sent Jimmy back to the ground. Jimmy tried to roll along the ground to get back up, but Shaw leapt through the air, landing a knee on Jimmy's back. Jimmy was barely able to move. Shaw pulled him up and wrapped his arm around Jimmy's neck, ready to snap it. Jimmy reached back to box Shaw's ears. Shaw's grip loosened, and Jimmy kicked his heel up, nailing Shaw in the groin. Shaw doubled-over in pain as Jimmy tried to get away from him, barely able to walk. He hit a button on his watch as Shaw staggered around…and found his gun on the ground. He grabbed it and pointed it at Jimmy, who had dragged himself to the edge of the roof.

~/^\~

Everyone entered the surveillance van. Chuck and Casey were at the computers.

"What's going on?" Sarah asked.

"Just got a text from Slade," Casey replied. "He was able to hack into the network connections you found at Victor Basta's mansion. We're downloading the intel now."

"How much information are we getting?"

Chuck turned to her and grinned. "Everything."

Sarah's eyes widened, and she turned to see the data on the monitor. "Accounts, passwords, personnel files, inventory, even building schematics?"

"All of it."

She took a long exhale and shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe it. That stupid, crazy idiot pulled it off."

A beeping sound started to come from Sarah's, Casey's, and Carina's phones. They took a look at the message.

"Looks like you spoke too soon, Walker," Casey replied. "Slade activated his callout."

"I knew it," Sarah groaned in aggravation. "I'll just bet he didn't bother asking for help until he had two hundred Ring agents on his ass."

"We'll find him," Carina replied.

Casey poked his head out of the van and looked down the roadway. He gave a grunt of excitement. "And we have the perfect vehicle."

Casey headed for the vehicle in the bunker with Carina and Cole right behind him.

~/^\~

"So pathetic," Shaw spat, again aiming his gun at Jimmy, who stood at the edge of the roof. "You're the only one who came here? You thought you could take on the Ring alone?"

"That was the idea," Jimmy replied.

Shaw looked on in confusion. "See, Casey taught me this little strategy once," Jimmy continued. "He calls it the magnet. We got you and your new masters looking high and low for us, focusing all your energy on trying to take us out. Which gave me all the time in the world to do this."

Jimmy pressed a button on his watch. Shaw could hear several explosions in the distance. And a couple that weren't so distant.

"What have you done?" he demanded.

"Like I said, while you tried to look for us, I was busy all day locating the Ring's strongholds in town. Well, they WERE the Ring's strongholds. I do feel a bit guilty about giving the L.A. Fire Department a busy night. But look on the bright side: now the Ring knows what it feels like to get kicked in the balls. Just like you."

Shaw's blood was boiling hot enough to make the sun sweat. "You son of a bitch…" He cocked his gun. "You're dead!"

"Yeah," Jimmy replied. "I get that all the time."

Shaw began to pull the trigger. Jimmy jumped backwards off the roof and fell towards the ground. He quickly hit another button on his watch. One of the large objects he left on the ground suddenly exploded and inflated. He landed hard into the airbag now on the concrete.

"GODDAMMIT!" he roared, his entire body in pain. "That shit worked in _Mission: Impossible_!"

Alarm bells began to go off throughout the Ring facility. Jimmy struggled to pull himself up, yelling in agony as he did so. He kicked open the box lying next to the airbag as security personnel started to come in from all sides. He pulled out a pair of MAC-10 machine guns, slinging one over his injured shoulder and spraying the area with the other. He took down a half-dozen guards in short order. He reached into the box to grab several extra clips and another backpack, taking off for the main entrance. He ducked and rolled as two more security guards fired at him. He then pushed up to his knees and opened fire again, taking the two out.

Jimmy got up and staggered all around as his shoulder throbbed from landing on it. He got to the wall that surrounded the complex when two guards came up to him.

"WAIT!" he shouted, taking them by surprise. He then turned to the wall and rammed his right shoulder into it, popping it back into its socket.

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!" he screamed. The two guards stepped back in shock. Jimmy rolled his shoulder a couple of times and exhaled. "Ahhh, much better."

He spun and nailed one guard in the face with an elbow. He reversed his spin and sent a kick into the other guard. He then had to duck out of the way as two guards standing on top of the twenty-foot wall fired away with automatic weapons of their own. He pressed himself flat against the wall to avoid them, but that left him no opportunity to fire back. He saw two dozen other guards only one hundred yards away from him and approaching fast.

He checked his backpack to find a long cord of rope and one piton. He no longer had his piton gun, but he had an idea to still make this work. He tied one end of the rope to his belt and the other end to the piton. He readied his MAC-10 and jumped out, opening fire at the two guards on the wall. They turned and ran along the wall to avoid the shots, at which point Jimmy whipped the piton at them. It wrapped around the ankle of one of the guards, causing the guard to stumble and fall over the wall, knocking his partner off in the process. The rope pulled Jimmy up to the top of the wall just as the remaining guards opened fire. He ducked down and lay flat on the wall to avoid being hit. Looking over the other side of the wall, Jimmy saw the ground outside the Ring facility was solid concrete, which meant a twenty-foot jump would badly cripple him. He took the rope and looped it over the base of an antenna affixed to the roof. He then dropped down, sliding slowly to the ground as the body of the guard the other end of the rope rose to the top of the roof. Jimmy undid the rope from his belt, and the guard landed with an nasty thud on the concrete.

"I see you carry a lot of weight around here," he said to the guard. His face then contorted in disgust. "Oh, God. That was bad even for ME!"

He ran towards the main road where he left his car. He got to within ten yards of it when he heard the clicks of multiple weapons behind him. The agents that were chasing him made it through the gate and had him surrounded. They led him back inside, and the gate slid shut.

Shaw stomped across the facility and stood face-to-face with Jimmy. The guards finished searching him, and Shaw ripped the watch Jimmy was wearing off of his wrist. He threw it to the ground and smashed it with his foot.

"No more spy toys," Shaw hissed as he took out his gun and aimed it between Jimmy's eyes.

Everyone looked back and forth as they heard the roar of a motor getting closer and closer. They turned towards the fence to see a large Humvee crash through it and barrel towards them, making everyone dive for cover. Jimmy backflipped to get out of the way, nailing Shaw in the chin as he did so. Carina and Cole bounded out of the Humvee and opened fire with automatic weapons. Casey leaned out of the driver's side and opened fire with a cigar in his mouth and a smile on his face.

"Forgot how much fun these are," he said.

Jimmy bounded for the back seat as Carina and Cole covered him. They jumped back in and the Humvee took off, spinning around and flying away from the Ring facility.

"No, wait. Don't tell me, Case. You love it when a plan comes together?" Jimmy said.

"For once, it actually did," he replied. "Glad the Marine Corps forgot this vehicle was in the bunker."

"Then you got the data I sent?"

"All of it," Cole said. "It's a goldmine. Pity you'll have to spend every waking hour sifting through it."

"If we stop these pricks, it'll be worth it. Just make sure there's some good coffee ready."

"Oh, and I have a message from Sarah," Carina said.

Jimmy looked at her oddly before his look turned into an angry glare. "Don't even think about it…"

Carina smacked him upside the head. "OK, can I EVER be allowed to do my job without someone doing that?!" Jimmy yelled.

"You wish," Carina replied with less-than-zero remorse.

Jimmy grumbled in defeat as the Humvee returned to the Marine base.

 ** _CIA Headquarters – Langley, VA  
June 8, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _10:30 AM EDT_**

Morgan and Big Mike drove to the gate at CIA Headquarters. Morgan couldn't help but be nervous. The suit he was wearing cost more than all the videogames and movies he had ever bought put together…and he bought his first one at age nine. But that was the point: they had to sell the fact that Big Mike and he were lawyers powerful enough to have such a high-profile client. Thankfully, Alex's time in Washington had put her in contact with a few high-end clothing stores that could make them look like $1,000-per-hour attorneys, and the BMW she procured for them to use would add to the charade.

"Names and IDs, please," the security agent at the gate said.

"Jack Chiles," Big Mike said. If he was as nervous as Morgan, he was doing a good job of not showing it. "This is my associate, Dennis Crane. We're with the firm of Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah, and we're here to see our client, General Diane Beckman."

The security agent checked her computer and found the appointment Chuck slipped into the CIA's servers. She then scanned each of their driver's licenses, which would check their identities against the databases at Fort Meade and NCIC. Thanks to Chuck, those also came up clean.

"Thank you," the agent curtly replied. "Park in the lot by the northeast entrance, enter through the main doors and present your briefcases for inspection there."

Big Mike drove the car to the lot in front of the northeast entrance. Both of them exited the car and headed towards the building.

"You sure they can't find that?" Big Mike asked Morgan, pointing to his briefcase.

"Yeah, it's totally cool," Morgan replied. "Chuck showed me how to work it. The wire is hidden in my wristwatch, and the clip slips into the port on my cell phone. I just have to attach the wire to the clip and make sure they don't see it."

"OK, then. Let's get this right. I don't want to go through another night like when they attacked us."

They continued to walk across the lot. "Dude, how can you be so calm?" Morgan asked. "If they catch us, they kill us, and they kill everybody else! How do you do it? I'm scared to death right now!"

Big Mike gave a little laugh. "Had a few adventures on the _Alabama_." He looked back and forth. "We almost launched nukes once. This was, like, almost 25 years ago."

"No way!"

Big Mike motioned for him to keep it quiet. "Yeah, Russia was having internal problems and we went toe-to-toe with an Akula-class Russian sub when the order came out for us to launch against them. Jesus, the captain and the executive officer fought over whether or not to start World War III. Half the crew was shittin' in their skivvies. Compared to that, this is a breeze."

Morgan shook his head in total disbelief. "What…why is every person I know so much cooler than me? Chuck's this government supercomputer, he gets the hottest actress in Hollywood…who really is a spy, by the way…to fall for him, hangs out with all of these awesome people who are ALSO spies? You fought for our country? What's next? I get back to the Buy More and find out Jeff and Lester formed a band?"

"Just…focus, willya?" Big Mike said in frustration.

"Yeah, yeah," Morgan said with a sigh as they entered the building. The went through security and headed to the visitation center.

~/^\~

Alex managed to make it past the cameras that littered the hallways in CIA headquarters with no problem. Of course, she had the good sense to walk at a brisk pace and not look towards any of them so they couldn't get a good enough image of her to run through the facial recognition computers. She checked the time. If all was going according to plan, Morgan and Big Mike would meet with Beckman in a few minutes, and Beckman would be back at her cell fifteen minutes after that. She had to drop the bug and recording device into Beckman's cell in exactly 26 minutes. The good news was, Chuck was able to hack the calendar of a vacationing worker who had a private office where she could access the air conditioning vent.

Crawling through two hundred yards of vents, however, wasn't the problem. The heat sensors that aligned them were.

She had to laugh: that was another one of those wild guesses movies made about CIA security they actually got right. She had to mask her body temperature so that the sensors wouldn't register any significant change in temperature. Fortunately, both Sarah and Carina had leather catsuits that were designed to mask body heat for exactly this purpose.

Alex shed the business suit she was wearing and slipped into Carina's catsuit, although it took a lot of effort to get it zipped. She frowned in confusion: she borrowed Carina's because they were the same height and both of them were two inches taller than Sarah. She went to the mirror in the bathroom and took a look. She smiled: she forgot to take into account her build was a bit more voluptuous than Carina's.

 _Damn, I look hot in this_ , she thought to herself, letting her long hair cascade over her shoulders. A rather naughty thought went through her mind and she checked her smartphone. She still had five minutes and being too early was just as bad as being too late. She switched to the camera and leaned seductively against the desk, snapping a selfie. She pulled the zipper down on her catsuit, making sure she showed off ample cleavage, and gave a pouty look to the camera as she took another selfie. She raised an eyebrow and switched to video mode.

"Just a little preview of what I have in store for you," she said in a throaty voice, licking her lips seductively. She sent the images and video to Jimmy's email. "I am so getting laid tonight," she said with a smile before she put the phone away.

She then paused in shock; she couldn't believe she just did that. She never got that wild with her fiancé, although they certainly had a lot of fun in the bedroom. Over a decade of hatred and anger must have had a much greater effect on her than she realized. She kept everything locked inside so tightly for so long, and suddenly Jimmy came along with the key. She was starting to wonder if Jimmy knew just how big of a tiger he unleashed.

 _Hey, it's his fault for being so hot and so nice_ , she thought devilishly as she tied her hair up and put on the mask to shield her face's temperature from the heat sensors. She got on top of the desk and opened the air vent, pulling herself inside.

~/^\~

Morgan and Big Mike sat down at one of the booths in the visitors' room, looking through the glass to the other side to watch for Beckman. A moment later, Beckman was led into the room by two guards, who sat her down in the chair in front of the guys. Beckman and Big Mike picked up the phone on their sides of the glass.

"What are you two doing…" Beckman began to hiss.

"General, my associate and I have been reviewing your case," Big Mike said in an official voice, cutting Beckman off from saying anything. "Rest assured, we are working day and night to make sure…"

Morgan nudged him. Big Mike glanced over, and Morgan pointed to the clip on the wire of the phone.

"OK, we're cool," Big Mike finished. "Just had to make sure the CIA wasn't listening in on us."

"What is going on?" Beckman's mood hadn't improved a bit. "Why are you two here? This is well beyond what we authorized you to do!"

"Hey, I'm not thrilled about this either!" Morgan whispered. "But there's a lot going on! We're risking our necks for you. Could you at least appreciate that little fact?"

Beckman exhaled slowly. "They arrested me the other day on charges of treason. It's obvious now the Ring has a mole inside the department who has enough influence to do this."

"That's what Sarah and everybody else thinks," Big Mike said. "Has anyone visited you yet? Tried to get you to talk?"

Beckman shook her head. "The mole must just want me out of the way. Nobody has come to interrogate me and I haven't been formally arraigned."

"Chuck and Sarah and everybody are still trying to work on the new Intersect and get the old one out," Morgan continued. "But there's this ex-spy, someone named Daniel Shaw, who's after Sarah. He's working with the Ring, and he even shot Chuck's dad."

Beckman's face blanched. "I never thought I'd hear that name again. He was totally in love with Evelyn. Graham authorized her mission and sealed the file on what happened to her. Shaw never recovered from losing her."

"Yeah, well right now, we've got the government, Shaw, and the Ring all coming after us. We have to find out who the person is who put you in here."

"What can I do to help?"

"After they take you back to your cell, Alex Forrest will drop something into your room, right when the surveillance is being reset," Big Mike answered. "It'll let you record anybody who visits you and they'll never know it."

"What about the Intersect? You said Chuck's father was shot. Will he survive?"

"He's OK," Morgan replied with profound relief. "He's still the in the hospital, of course. Ellie is going to complete the Intersect with Chuck."

Beckman sat silently for a moment. She had to give everyone credit: most agents would have let her hang. But they still wanted to finish the job despite having everything stacked against them. "I'll do what I can from in here. Tell them to do whatever it takes, but they must stop Shaw and take down the Ring. At any cost."

Big Mike looked around to make sure nobody saw Morgan remove the clip from the phone. Both Morgan and Big Mike got up and exited the visitor's room. Two guards returned to escort Beckman back to her cell.

~/^\~

Alex crept slowly through the ventilation system. She didn't want to hurry, afraid she might make too much noise and set off one of the many sensors the building had. She checked her watch; the cameras would switch drives in ninety seconds. She knew Beckman had returned to her cell, as she had heard the door shut a few minutes before.

She reached the ventilation grate. As expected, a laser net covered it. Fortunately, Casey and Jimmy had prepared her for this. She unzipped her catsuit and reached inside, pulling out the device she would attach to the power source of the laser, which would cycle the electricity to make the system think the laser was still on. She attached the device and shut off the power. She then pulled out the microphone, contact lenses, and drive and held them over the grate directly in the center. She watched Beckman stand. Morgan and Big Mike told her to make it look like she was stretching. Beckman yawned loudly and raised her arm. Both heard a click as the cameras shut off. Beckman opened her hand just as Alex dropped the three objects down. Beckman snatched them and closed her fist, bringing her arm down as the cameras turned back on. Alex unclipped the power, and the laser net once again covered the ventilation grate. She backed away and crawled slowly out of the ventilation system.

~/^\~

Morgan breathed a sigh of relief as Big Mike walked through the hallways towards the exit. "So glad we pulled that off," Morgan said.

"Me too," Big Mike replied. He checked the time. "We have to get back to the hotel and pack. Our flight is in three hours."

They turned a corner. "Do you know where we're supposed to pick up…" Morgan began when they ran into a team of six agents with weapons drawn. They led Morgan and Big Mike down the hallway into a small room, motioning with their weapons for them to take a seat.

"Quite clever, actually," one of the agents said. "But Mr. Decker guessed Walker would try to free Beckman. That's why he made sure he gave us hard copies of the files on anyone who worked at the Buy More with Mr. Bartowski."

Morgan and Big Mike looked at each other in fear. "We don't know what you're talking about," Big Mike said.

The agent put his gun under Big Mike's chin. "I believe you do, Mr. Tucker."

Big Mike rose and gave the man a hard stare, walking him a few steps back. "You better get that gun out of my face before something bad happens to you."

"Like what?"

The ventilation grate above the room exploded downward and Alex swung from the ceiling, nailing the agent threatening Big Mike in the face. Mike kicked Morgan's chair, sliding him out of the way as he threw a roundhouse at another agent. Alex spun and landed a boot at a third agent while pulling out her telescoping batons, using them to pummel two more agents. One of the agents tried to get up and attack, but Morgan leaped up and smashed his chair on the back of the guy's head.

One of the agents managed to get up and nailed Alex with a hard jab, knocking her back. She lost one of her batons as a second agent tried to attack her. Big Mike swooped down to grab the baton and performed a perfect golf swing to take out that guy's knees, finishing him off with a shot to the head. Alex launched herself into the air off the table in the room and nailed the first agent with a kick to his head. Behind both of them, an agent on the floor took aim with his gun. Morgan flipped the heavy table over, which landed right on the agent, taking him out for good.

Alex, Morgan, and Big Mike quickly left the building before any of the agents came to and sounded the alarm. They got into the car and drove away from the CIA.

"Man, I was so wrong about you," Morgan said with profound relief. "You are WAY MORE hotter badass than Tricia Helfer!"

"Who's that?" Alex asked. "Was she on the show?"

"How the hell did that happen?" Despite surviving, Big Mike was not a happy camper. "I thought we were just supposed to talk to your boss!"

"Sarah said there are Ring agents in almost every part of the government," Alex said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that. They said someone named Becker knew our real names."

"Dude, he said Decker," Morgan corrected.

"Decker?" That got Alex's attention. She immediately called Sarah. "Sarah, it's Alex. We accomplished our mission, and we may know who arrested Beckman. Clyde Decker."

"Decker? Are you sure?" Sarah asked.

"We were captured by some Ring agents in the facility and they dropped his name to Morgan and Mike. At least now we can get Beckman out of there."

"Not yet," Sarah replied in frustration. "It's his word against ours, and we would lose that fight. We still need him to visit Beckman so we have it on tape that he's part of the Ring. Are you three safe?"

Big Mike turned the vehicle onto the highway. "We should be now," Alex replied. "We'll be on a plane in a couple of hours."

"OK, get back here quickly. And be careful."

"Will do. Bye." Alex hung up the phone and turned to Big Mike. "Head straight for the airport. The faster we get out of here, the better."

 _ **Marine Corps Air Station El Toro – Irvine, CA  
**_ ** _June 8, 2016_** _ **  
**_ ** _8:45 AM PDT_**

"How is the Intersect coming along?"

Sarah completed her call with Alex and walked over to where Chuck and Ellie were. Both Bartowskis looked exhausted, but that was understandable given they were up all night working on the project. She caught a nap earlier…as did everyone else while they rotated guard duty…but it was clear obsessiveness over a problem wasn't restricted only to Chuck.

"We're getting there," Chuck replied tiredly. "Dad's notes were hard to decipher at first, but Ellie seems to have developed a knack for translating them. We're almost done with the one to take out my Intersect, and we have the data structure set for Jimmy's. We just have to merge it with the data we got from Beckman."

"Hopefully Decker will visit Beckman and confess to being part of the Ring."

"What if he doesn't?"

"Beckman will goad him into confessing. I'm not worried about that. Getting him to visit her is the hard part."

"Here we go. This should help everyone."

Devon and Ilsa walked into the van with coffee and pastries for everyone.

"Thanks, honey," Ellie said as she reached for a cup. "That's exactly what I need right now."

"You need some rest, babe," Devon replied. "You've been at this for almost twenty-four hours non-stop."

"I need to…"

"A good idea, Devon," Sarah said, gently pulling Chuck from his chair. "And take him while you're at it."

"You're always bossing me around," Chuck grumbled.

"That's because I'm so good at it," she replied with a grin.

"Come on, you two," Devon replied. "Everything will still be here when you return."

Sarah walked over to where Jimmy was. "How is our Ring intel?"

"A lot to go through," he replied. "We could arm a medium-sized country with the hardware they've stashed. And you wouldn't believe the amount of money I've transferred out so far. Want to buy an island? I think we have enough here to make a good down payment on Australia."

"Australia? After what happened to me on _Ellen_?"

"Touché." He switched to another document. "Hmmm."

"What's wrong?"

Jimmy shrugged. "Not sure. This file is just a PDF. No account numbers, nothing I can link to." He did a quick search on the phrase written down in the file. "Nothing."

Chuck glanced at Jimmy's monitor as he passed by it and saw the document on the screen, which only contained the phrase _Figueroa227_. He had a flash, seeing a printing press, a large vault, and the most telling sign: an empty white room.

"God!" he growled in pain.

"Are you OK?" Sarah asked quickly, holding Chuck.

"It's OK, it's OK," he quickly replied. "I saw a bank. Republic Private Bank. And I think the 227 refers to a safe deposit box."

"Republic Private Bank?" Devon asked. "On Figueroa?" Chuck nodded. "That's our bank. Ellie and I have a safe deposit box there, too."

"They must have something in that box that they're keeping off of their networks," Jimmy said. "We should try to get it."

"That's easy. I'll go in and say I have to put our marriage license in our safe deposit box, and you guys make some sort of skeleton key that will get me into that one."

"No, absolutely not," Sarah replied firmly. "Morgan and Big Mike were attacked at the CIA and had to rely on Alex to rescue them. You'd have to go into the vault by yourself. I can't put you into danger like that."

"Sarah, it might be worth the risk," Chuck replied gently.

"Why?"

"That was also part of my flash. I think that box contains the location where the Ring is creating an Intersect room."

Sarah stared at Chuck in shock.


End file.
